YP Letters: Harry Leslie Smith, a veteran who battled on for future generations

From: Daniel Vulliamy, Chair, Driffield & Rural Branch Labour Party, Brigham, Driffield.
Tributes continue to be paid to social justice campaigner Harry Smith.Tributes continue to be paid to social justice campaigner Harry Smith.
Tributes continue to be paid to social justice campaigner Harry Smith.

CONGRATULATIONS on your generous obituary for 95-year old Harry Leslie Smith (The Yorkshire Post, December 1) and the tribute by Jayne Dowle (December 3).

The former combatant in the 1939-45 war decided in 2013 that he could no longer wear a red poppy for fear of appearing to celebrate war.

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He reminded us constantly of the false memory syndrome that made people forget the privations and struggles of working class life in warm, cuddly misconceptions 
of the world before the NHS and universal education.

And he challenged the 
pattern that we grow 
more right-wing as we get 
older.

As we see the NHS and other public services under growing threat from austerity, privatisation and Brexit, we 
can only hope for more 
Harry Leslie Smiths to vote, 
not just for themselves, 
but for their grandchildren and their grandchildren’s grandchildren.