Harry Leslie Smith, the man who described himself as “the world’s oldest rebel”, died early this morning following a short hospital stay in Belleville, Ontario.
At the age of 95, Smith had over 250,000 twitter followers at #HarrysLastStand, the same title of the book he released in 2014.
“Our dream of a civilized society is being corrupted”
Born into abject poverty in Barnsley, near Leeds in England, he lost a sister in 1926 to tuberculosis.
Smith said the disease was due to the lack of sanitation in the slum neighbourhood where his family lived, and the poverty that prevented proper medical care at the time.
Harry Leslie Smith poses with a copy of his book “Harry’s Last Stand”, in an undated photo posted to social media. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Facebook, Harry’s Last Stand.
A veteran of the Second World War, Smith got radically active in his senior years trying to raise awareness and compassion for the growing waves of refugees, and the ongoing eroison of social democracies.
“I can see already that we are retreating back to my past,” he told Anna Maria Tremonti, in a recent interview on the CBC Radio program, The Current.
“Life is not good anymore for ordinary people.” he said.
In a 2014 interview with Leslie Roberts on Global TV, Smith reflected on the 2008 global financial crisis saying “our dream of a civilised society is being corrupted”.
“It’s my impassioned call to civilisation over hedge fund mentality.”
Smith was troubled by the resurgence of nationalism and the protectionist tendencies taking over the so-called developed world.
“Over my close to one hundred years of life, I have witnessed or participated in the great and terrible events that shaped the 20th century,” Smith wrote on his GoFundMe page.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, responded to the news today, tweeting: “We will all miss Harry Leslie Smith – he was one of the giants whose shoulders we stand on.”
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