Issy Smith

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Issy Smith
The Manchester Regiment
Battles/wars
Awards
  • Cross of St. George (Russia)[1]

Issy Smith

Cross of St. George
(4th class) by the respective governments.

Born Ishroulch Shmeilowitz (and other renderings), to parents residing in

The Manchester Regiment, Smith was engaged in the Second Battle of Ypres. On 26 April 1915, Smith, on his own initiative, recovered wounded soldiers while exposed to sustained fire and attended to them "with the greatest devotion to duty regardless of personal risk".[3] His conduct secured a recommendation for the Victoria Cross, which was awarded to Smith in August 1915.[3]

After his demobilisation, Smith returned to Australia with his wife and daughter. He became a prominent figure in

Justice of the Peace, and unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for the United Australia Party in the 1931 general election.[4]

Early life

Smith was born in Alexandria, the son of French citizens Moses and Eva Shmeilowitz, who were of Russian Jewish origin.[5] His father was employed by the French Consulate-General as a clerk. Aged 11, Smith embarked as a stowaway aboard a vessel proceeding to London. Undaunted by this unfamiliar environment, Smith attended Berner Street School, Commercial Street, and worked as a deliverer in the East End,[5] then an impoverished ghetto where Yiddish was the predominant spoken language.[6] Persecution and extreme deprivation had compelled millions of Eastern European Jews to migrate to Western Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere. By the time of Issy Smith's arrival, Jewish immigration to Britain had peaked but was curtailed by the enactment of the Aliens Act in 1905.[7]

He joined the British Army in 1904, becoming a private in the Manchester Regiment. The pseudonym Issy Smith was adopted in the process of enlisting at the behest of a recruiting sergeant. Smith completed his training, serving in South Africa and India with the 1st Battalion. He boxed competitively, winning the British Army's middleweight championship, and played

football. While in India, Smith was present at the Delhi Durbar parade, in which the 1st Manchesters participated, and was thus awarded the Delhi Durbar Medal.[5]

Accepting his discharge in 1912, Smith emigrated to Australia after brief employment in London. He lived in the Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale while working for the city's gas company. Retained as a reservist, Smith was mobilised by the British Army after the commencement of hostilities in August 1914. Some sources state that Smith was present at the capture of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force.[8]

World War I

The 1st Manchester Regiment, stationed in India, sailed from

Marseilles in late September, but was not deployed to the front until 26 October 1914, when it occupied trenches east of Festubert.[9][10]

Actively engaged in the battles of

chlorine gas proved ineffectual, limiting the advance and causing many soldiers to succumb to its effects.[11][12]

During the Allied counter-attack, Smith, of his own volition, ventured towards a German position to attend to a severely wounded soldier. He carried him some 250 yards (230 m) to relative safety while exposed to intense German fire. According to the Victoria Cross citation, he brought in "many more wounded men" throughout the day under similarly perilous conditions "regardless of personal risk".[3] Recounting his own rescue by Smith to a Daily Mail correspondent, Sergeant Rooke said of the corporal: "He behaved with wonderful coolness and presence of mind the whole time, and no man deserved a Victoria Cross more thoroughly than he did".[8]

No. 168 Acting Corporal Issy Smith, 1st Battalion, The Manchester Regiment.
For most conspicuous bravery on 26 April 1915, near Ypres, when he left his Company on his own initiative and went well forward towards the enemy's position to assist a severely wounded man, whom he carried a distance of 250 yards into safety, whilst exposed the whole time to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire.

Subsequently Corporal Smith displayed great gallantry, when the casualties were very heavy, in voluntarily assisting to bring in many more wounded men throughout the day, and attending to them with the greatest devotion to duty regardless of personal risk.

The London Gazette, 20 August 1915[3]

Smith was hospitalised in

King George V.[13] He was feted by publications such as The Jewish Chronicle, and his status as a recipient of the VC was utilised by the British government for the purposes of stimulating further recruitment.[8][14] His visits to Jewish communities in the United Kingdom generated much interest, attracting dignitaries and large crowds in the process.[8] On one such occasion, in September 1915, he was invited back to his old school in the East End to receive a gold watch and chain in honour of his Victoria Cross from his former schoolmates.[15] Also that month, Smith was received at Mansion House, Dublin, by the Under-Secretary for Ireland, Matthew Nathan, who took advantage of the occasion to reaffirm loyalty to both Britain and Ireland.[16] Contemporaries, however, continued to report instances of discrimination against Jewish servicemen, including an incident involving Issy Smith in Leeds.[17] While documenting his recruitment drive, The Jewish Chronicle reported that the proprietor of the Grand Restaurant had refused to serve Smith during his tour of Yorkshire because he was Jewish, while indicating the staff were prepared to accept his non-Jewish acquaintance.[18] Smith's tour continued otherwise without disruption, taking him to Edinburgh
, Scotland.

Meanwhile, on the Western Front, the demoralised and depleted Indian Corps fought its final European battle at

Palestine until the cessation of hostilities with the Ottoman Empire and Germany on 30 October and 11 November respectively. He had been wounded five times.[5]

Demobilised after the war, Smith returned to London. As a war hero, he was intermittently invited to social functions. In June 1920, he attended a garden party at

Cloth Hall there.[22]

Legacy

Black and white photograph of three boys. The two boys in the centre and right-hand side of the photo are wearing formal suits with medals pinned on the left-hand side of their chest. Only part of the head of the third boy is visible on the left-hand side of the photo.
Maurice Smith (centre) wearing his father's medals

Despite his fame and popularity, like many former servicemen contending with post-war economic hardship, Smith struggled financially – a predicament compounded by illness.[23] As a consequence he pawned his medals for £20, only for them to be recovered by the Jewish Historical Society on the urging of the wife of Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz and ultimately reunited with Smith.[24][25] Smith's varied occupations in post-war Britain included work as an actor with a theatre troupe.[26] He emigrated to Australia in 1925 with his wife Elsie (née McKechnie), whom he had married at Camberwell Register Office. Marriage to Elsie produced two children (Olive and Maurice) and reputedly angered his parents despite the couple's later observance of Jewish religious tradition in a formal ceremony held at Central Synagogue, Hallam Street.[5]

The family settled in

Justice of the Peace in 1930, Smith tried politics as a candidate in the 1931 federal election for the United Australia Party, contesting the seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives, and "seriously challenged the hitherto unassailable Dr Maloney".[4]

Smith died of

US$60,000).[8][25]

Following representations from the

First World War Victoria Cross medal holders by laying commemorative paving stones in their home towns would be extended to include Smith, who was born in Egypt.[27]

Notes

  1. ^ Issy Smith VC JP Archived 15 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, diggerhistory.info. Accessed 4 September 2007.
  2. ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography. Other sources give different dates of birth and death (Dix Noonan Webb).
  3. ^ a b c d "No. 29272". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 August 1915. p. 8374.
  4. ^ a b The Times, 21 December 1931; p. 10; Issue 46011; col A.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 27 July 2007.
  6. ^ Rubinstein, p. 242.
  7. ^ Alderman, pp. 149–150.
  8. ^ a b c d e Dix Noonan Webb, dnw.co.uk. Accessed 3 August 2007.
  9. ^ a b James, p. 96.
  10. ^ Mileham, p. 85.
  11. ^ a b Mileham, p. 92.
  12. ^ a b Wyrall, p. 122.
  13. ^ The Jewish Chronicle, 11 February 1916, p. 8.
  14. ^ Cesarani, p. 118.
  15. ^ The Times, 6 September 1915; p. 11; Issue 40952; col D.
  16. ^ Keogh, p. 69.
  17. ^ The Jewish Chronicle, 22 October 1915, p. 5.
  18. ^ The Jewish Chronicle, 22 October 1915, p 13.
  19. ^ Omissi, India and the Western Front, bbc.co.uk. Accessed 15 August 2007.
  20. ^ The Times, 28 June 1920; p. 19; Issue 42448; col B.
  21. ^ The Times, 15 September 1921; p. 5; Issue 42826; col G.
  22. ^ The Times, 31 July 1922; p. 12; Issue 43097; col A.
  23. ^ Jewish Chronicle, 20 January 1922, p. 9.
  24. ^ Jewish Chronicle, 28 November 1924, p. 13.
  25. ^ a b Jewish Chronicle, 6 October 1995, p. 6.
  26. ^ Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 7 September 2006.
  27. ^ Rashty, Sandy (24 September 2013). "U-turn means World War One hero will be honoured". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 24 September 2013.

References

Further reading


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