Smith, Russell

Russell Smith was born in 1919 in Toronto, and he grew up in Toronto during the interwar years.  Russell remembers well the difficulties of those Great Depression years, especially as he grew up in a family of eleven children, and his single mother needed all the help she could get.  The third eldest, Russell left school early on; the family needed any and all income, and Russell worked where he could – as a delivery boy, an apprentice bookbinder, whatever it took…With money tight, Russell remembers that he and his siblings did what they could to have fun, but for him it was about his bicycle, which was his transportation as well as a source of enjoyment.  Looking for something to occupy his time, Russell enlisted in the militia, and went into the interwar cavalry – he loved the horses and grew to love the discipline and mission that the military life brought to him.  With the coming of the war – an event that Russell and the other militiamen knew was on the way – Russell went into the army proper, where he excelled in the different facets of army life.  He was such a good soldier that the army made him a drill instructor, and in this capacity he helped to train Canada’s fighting men for that conflict.  Russell rose through the ranks during his time at Camp Borden, and he continued this during his time at Aldershot, the site of Canada’s overseas encampment in Britain.  Russell recalled the training and personalities in great depth, as recounted in this discussion.

Russell Smith was referred to us via the Memory Project, and he joins the ranks of the many collaborative ventures that we have done with that organization over the years.  Russell was interviewed for this project in May 2018, when Scott Masters visited him at his home in Oshawa.