Harry Leslie Smith
The Independent
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Harry Leslie:
I was there when the NHS was first founded – and this is why you shouldn't think of my generation as heroic
In the summer sun of 1948, the NHS was created, and I remember thinking then: 'At least I won’t die in the workhouse like my sister did in 1926 because my parents were too poor to pay for a doctor to care for her as she succumbed to TB' → Read More
I'm nearly 100 years old, I saw the 1945 refugee crisis firsthand – and I need people to listen to my warning
As the northern hemisphere wends its way into summer, my sense of calm has been broken by the anguished cries of refugees the world over who have been denied their human right to a life free of war or poverty. Maybe it’s my advanced age and knowing that I will be dead soon that makes me angry and resolved not to remain quiet. → Read More
My generation’s hard fought lessons are being forgotten
As a young airman, Harry Leslie Smith saw first hand the need for co-operation in Europe, a lesson he thinks later generations have lost → Read More
Brexit threatens everything I fought for in the Second World War. On my 95th birthday, this is what I need people to know
It was at the end of February in 1945 that I celebrated, courtesy of the RAF and Hitler, my 22nd birthday in Belgium. I was stationed at a former Luftwaffe airfield that was at that time used for fighter planes to fly short reconnaissance missions to the nearby collapsing German front. → Read More
Brexit threatens everything I fought for in the Second World War. On my 95th birthday, this is what I need people to know
It was at the end of February in 1945 that I celebrated, courtesy of the RAF and Hitler, my 22nd birthday in Belgium. I was stationed at a former Luftwaffe airfield that was at that time used for fighter planes to fly short reconnaissance missions to the nearby collapsing German front. → Read More
What Christmas was like for my generation during the Great Depression
It was December 1930, and the Great Depression had settled upon Britain with the virulence of a medieval plague that only targeted the poor, the vulnerable and the struggling middle class. As the cold weather closed in upon us, I traversed the streets of my neighbourhood hawking beer from my barrow and feeling an immense loneliness because I knew there was no adult who was going to rescue me… → Read More
Britain's 21st-century housing catastrophe bears an eerie resemblance to my childhood
In the 1920s, Harry Leslie Smith was shunted from one cold, dirty, overcrowded hovel to the next, fleeing by night when his father could no longer pay the rent. Nearly a century on, little has changed for many working-class families → Read More
I'm 94 years old, I fought in the Second World War and I have a serious warning about where 2017 is headed
In August 1945, Europe was still smouldering from the effects of years of total war on its continent, when the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Over 100,000 residents in those two cities were incinerated immediately by the power of each atomic blast. In the months that followed those atomic attacks, tens of thousands more would die… → Read More
In 1939, I didn’t hear war coming. Now its thundering approach can’t be ignored
Author Harry Leslie Smith remembers the prelude to the second world war – and there are worrying echoes now → Read More
Corbyn’s inspiring manifesto takes me back to Labour 1945 blueprint for hope
My generation is the last to remember the destitution of life in Britain before the NHS and the welfare state. Heed our warnings, before we are gone → Read More
Polar bear cub dies at SeaWorld less than a month after being born
Twin cubs were born at the Gold Coast centre in Australia. → Read More
VE Day: My generation voted Labour after the war – it's time to rebuild Britain once again
In 1945, we wanted a Britain where all of us lived in hope for prosperity and equality. → Read More
My generation’s hard fought lessons are being forgotten
As a young airman, Harry Leslie Smith saw first hand the need for co-operation in Europe, a lesson he thinks later generations have lost → Read More
Another Budget, more austerity — Philip Hammond is adding fuel to Britain's funeral pyre
Seven years on, Tory austerity is still killing Britain. → Read More
Don’t dread old age. I’m 94, and I won’t spend my last years in fear of the Tories
I lived through the 30s and 80s and know the only to beat the tyranny of austerity is through defiance. As long as you can love, there’s a purpose to life → Read More
When Britain lost its nerve
On the morning the referendum results were announced to Britain, after weeks of inclement weather, the sun shone down upon a nation that had decided to leave the European Union and walk alone into the darkness of a self-created economic and political crisis. In the hours and days that have followed, a storm of financial panic, resentment at the powers-that-be and xenophobia has begun to paralyze… → Read More
Budget 2016: Our economy isn't on the mend
Tax cuts and ISAs won't save the next generation when there are low wages and an economy rewarding the affluent. → Read More
Our brothers’ keepers: Harry Leslie Smith visits the “Jungle” in Calais
As a young British soldier in 1945, Harry Leslie Smith witnessed Europe’s last great refugee crisis. Now, aged 92, he meets a new generation of refugees. → Read More
My sister died because we couldn’t afford a doctor. Then the NHS changed everything
The NHS was a revolution for postwar Britain that restored my wife’s mental health, and our marriage → Read More
I'm 92 and I've lived through 16 prime ministers – here are five things David Cameron must do in 2016
As I will be 93 in February 2016 I must accept that Cameron's conservatives may be the last government I will live under → Read More