Colonel Arthur Britton Smith CM, OOnt, MC, CD, KC (1920-2023)
Colonel Arthur Britton Smith was born in Kingston, Ontario, on May 13, 1920, to Cyril Middleton Smith and Edna Madeline Smith (née Spooner), both originally from Manitoba. He grew up in Kingston with his three sisters and attended Victoria Public School and Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
Smith began his military service in 1935 at the age of fifteen when he joined the 32nd (Kingston) Field Battery as a part-time reservist. In 1938 he entered the Royal Military College of Canada and graduated in 1940, receiving his commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Artillery. That same year he deployed to the United Kingdom with the 8th Field Regiment, RCA. He later transferred to the 4th Field Regiment and was promoted to captain in 1942.
In July 1944, shortly after D-Day, Smith landed in Normandy as a Forward Observation Officer with the Fusiliers Mont-Royal. On July 20, during heavy fighting near Verrières Ridge, he survived a grenade explosion and a burst of submachine-gun fire, his life saved by the plastic body armour he was wearing. Over the course of two days he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while directing artillery support and helped repel several counterattacks. When the position was overrun, he withdrew under fire and avoided capture. For his actions he was awarded the Military Cross.
Five days later, on July 25, while advancing near Verrières with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, the carrier in which he was travelling struck a mine. His leg was shattered, and a bullet lodged behind his ear during the evacuation. Smith was repatriated to Canada in November 1944 and was later discharged because of his wounds.
His wartime decorations include the Military Cross, the 1939–1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Bar, and the War Medal 1939–1945. In 2014 he was appointed to the French Légion d’honneur. After the war he joined the Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment as a reservist and later served as its Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel and Honorary Colonel.
After the war Smith studied law at Osgoode Hall and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1948. He practiced law in Kingston for fifty years.
In 1954 he founded Homestead Land Holdings Limited. What began as a small personal venture grew into one of Canada’s largest residential rental companies, managing more than 27,000 units across Ontario and Alberta.
Smith also wrote on naval and military history, including works on HMS Ontario, which was lost on Lake Ontario in 1780.
His philanthropy supported many institutions in Kingston and across Canada. He was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2018 and to the Order of Canada in 2019. Through his foundation, personal gifts, and Homestead, he supported hundreds of initiatives. Donations totaling more than $30 million were made to organizations including Queen’s University, University Hospitals Kingston, the Royal Military College of Canada, St. Lawrence College, and the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.
Smith also served as an alderman on Kingston City Council from 1949 to 1955, chaired the United Way campaign in 1967, and was President of the Royal Military College Club from 1983 to 1984.
In 1944 he married his fiancée, Edith “Sally” Carruthers. They had three children: Sheila, Britton, and Alexander. The couple remained married for sixty-eight years until Sally’s death in 2012.
Smith turned one hundred in May 2020 and died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 103.