• First World War Commemorative Project
• Introduction
• The Memorial Service
• About the Project

Born	May 25, 1894
Died	July 18, 1918
Force	Army
Division	3rd Battalion, Foreign Legion
Home Address	87 Harbord Street [Map]

Harley Smith enlisted almost immediately after the outbreak of war, obtaining his commission in the Governor General’s Body Guard in the autumn of 1914. He later joined the Royal Flying Corps but met with an accident near the end of his training which made it impossible for him to continue flying. Undaunted, he joined the Third Battalion of the French Foreign Legion, making him the only UTS boy to be killed while fighting for neither a Canadian nor a British armed service. He served with distinction, earning the Croix de Guerre with the second-highest grade, a gold star, and later receiving the Medaille Militaire a mere two days before he was killed during the attack on Soissons. His mother was alone when she received the news of his death because his father, a former Italian Consul in Toronto, was serving in Europe with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Smith is buried near Soissons in Vauxbuin French Military Cemetery.

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