Author David Scott Smith broke the silence about his father’s role in the Second World War.
Smith’s father, Sydney Smith enlisted into the Royal Canadian Air Force at 21-years-old in 1941. He went with 13 of his high school friends from Sudbury, but only four returned home. Sydney fought in many battles as a bomber pilot and returned home to start a family and go on to practice dentistry.
Years later Smith sat down with his father and revisited the past together. Smith said his father was quiet about his past and didn’t talk much about it. Working on the book Lifting the Silence together, he learned more about what his father went through and the two became closer.
Smith said Canada in general is quiet about its passed history in the two world wars. The term the Greatest Generation has given Smith pause whenever he hears it. He said he prefers to think of them as the quiet generation.
“Canada in general is a quiet country,” Smith said. “My father was a very non-emotional person and he was a very quiet person and I believe it was largely due to his experiences and his losses of close personal friends during the war. If you can image, 13 young high school buddies and only four come home they are all close and within two years the loss of friends is stunning. That really caused him to clam up.”
He said those stories later were put down into the book, which was first released near the end of the November of last year.
Sydney passed away in August 2010 at 91-years-old but was able to read the final draft of the book and see the cover. Smith said his father gave his approval of the book.
“If he didn’t like it, it wasn’t going to go through,” he said. “So we went by chapter by chapter. We worked very close and it was a lot of discoveries for both of us.”
With Remembrance Day fast approaching, Smith said it’s as good as any time to tour the spots he mentions in the book and advocate the deeds his father and friends did years ago.
“We should remember their contribution to the war effort and Canada’s place on the world stage,” he said. “We should make more of an effort to know about this. There’s not many of them left and there’s tons of great stories of contributions that we should begin to learn more.”
Smith stopped in Thunder Bay during his tour as he and his family spent a 25 years in the city. He said he still has fond memories of the city.
Smith will be signing copies of his book at the Chapters bookstore on Memorial Avenue on Sunday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
