Arthur Britton Smith

Smith has a recognized record of community service and philanthropy. The award of the Order of Ontario (2018) to Smith was in recognition of his community service, including his philanthropy. Similarly, community service and philanthropy figured prominently in Smith's being made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019. The citation for this award reads:

Early in his legal career, Smith began to dabble as a “hobby” in residential development and rentals. It is in this field that he became especially well known. In 1954, Smith founded Homestead Land Holdings Limited, a land development, construction and residential rentals company. Smith built Homestead into one of the largest residential rental companies in all of Canada, ultimately owning and marketing over 27,000 rental units in 16 cities across eastern, central and western Ontario and in Calgary, Alberta.

Following the war, in 1948, Smith joined an infantry reserve unit in Kingston, the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment (PWOR), in which he served as a company commander until 1954. He later served as the PWOR's Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel from 1968 to 1974, and as the Honorary Colonel from 1974 to 1985 and again from 1992 to 1995.

Following his service in World War II, Smith in 1945 began to work at becoming a lawyer. In Ontario at that time, prospective lawyers went through a three-year Bar admission process, involving “articling” (in effect apprenticing) at a law firm, while also taking some courses part-time at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Smith completed this process in 1948 and was admitted to Ontario's legal profession as a barrister and solicitor. Several years later, he was granted a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree; this degree was retroactively offered, in 1991, to persons who had been graduated by Osgoode Hall Law School in the years before it became a degree-granting institution. After becoming a lawyer in 1948, Smith established a law office in Kingston and practised for 50 years.

In early July 1944, about a month after D-Day, Smith landed in Normandy, France, as part of the invasion follow-on forces. He was the commander of 'C' Troop, 14th Battery, 4th Field Regiment, RCA, which was part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. His time in France was to be brief, but eventful.

During the remainder of that day and night and the following day, enemy armour and infantry (including elements of the tough, fanatical 12th SS Panzer Division) mounted no fewer than four counter-attacks on the farm. Smith coolly and effectively directed artillery fire that broke up each of these counter-attacks. To accurately direct the guns, he several times had to move to exposed positions in the face of heavy enemy fire. On one occasion, he and the few soldiers in his Observation Post, killed and repulsed several enemy troops who had got within 20 yards of their position. In a final German counter-attack on the farm, the FMR company – now critically low on ammunition and its strength significantly depleted by casualties – was overrun. On this occasion too, Smith by his effective direction of artillery fire inflicted severe casualties on the enemy. He then withdrew under heavy fire and avoided being captured. For his conduct in this action, Smith was awarded the Military Cross. (Postscript: a few days later, on July 24, 1944, another company from the FMR, under Major J.A. Dextraze, again seized Troteval Farm and held it.)

On the morning of July 25, Smith was a FOO with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry during an attack on Verriéres village. As he advanced through a grain field, in dim pre-dawn light, his Universal Carrier – a small, light tracked armoured vehicle, commonly called a "Bren gun carrier" – detonated a German anti-tank mine. Smith's driver was instantly killed. Despite a lining of sandbags in the bottom of the Carrier, Smith's right leg was badly shattered and he was thrown high into the air and out of the vehicle. At least four enemy machine guns began firing at the area where the flash of the exploding mine had been seen. Smith and his two signallers crawled away through the grain field, with machine gun bullets flying all around. One of the bullets ricocheted off the ground and hit Smith in the side of his head, embedding itself behind his right ear. Smith was evacuated from the war zone, and ultimately repatriated to Canada in November 1944.

In 1944, a few days after arriving home from the war and while still recovering from his wounds, Smith married his fiancée of four years, Edith Burpee (“Sally”) Carruthers of Kingston. They raised three children: Sheila, Britton and Alexander. The couple was together for 68 years before Sally died of cancer in 2012.

In addition to having won the Military Cross for gallantry, Smith received several service medals to recognize his war service: the 1939-1945 Star; the France and Germany Star; the Defence Medal; the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with overseas bar; and the War Medal 1939-1945. In 2014, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy, Smith's wartime service was further recognized when France awarded him its ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour).

Smith first joined the army in 1935 when, as a 15-year-old school boy, he enlisted as a part-time reservist in the 32nd (Kingston) Field Battery, an artillery unit in the Non-Permanent Active Militia. In 1938, aged 18, he became a cadet (#2652) at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), located in his hometown of Kingston. Upon completing the program at RMC in 1940, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA), a corps of the Canadian Army. World War II was underway and that same year Smith was sent overseas to the United Kingdom, posted to the 8th Field Regiment, RCA. Smith later recalled that, as a young professional soldier, he was "delighted to have the opportunity to fight the war." In 1942, he was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred to the 4th Field Regiment, RCA.

Colonel Arthur Britton Smith CM OOnt MC CD KC (born May 13, 1920) is a Canadian philanthropist, businessperson, historical writer, retired lawyer and war veteran.

Smith was born in Kingston, Ontario on May 13, 1920, the son of Cyril Middleton Smith, a lawyer, and Edna Madeline Smith (née Spooner). Both his parents were originally from Manitoba. He and three sisters were raised in Kingston (plus one who died tragically as a toddler), growing up on Stuart Street and Kensington Avenue. He received his primary and secondary education at Victoria Public School and Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

"Throughout his lifetime, Britton Smith has demonstrated exemplary qualities of leadership and vision. A native of Kingston, Ontario, he practiced law before developing one of the most successful rental organizations in the country. Esteemed for his philanthropy, he has helped grow his community through generous donations from his eponymous foundation, benefiting the social, economic and cultural fabric of the city. A decorated Second World War soldier and recipient of the Military Cross, he is also a passionate local historian and has written extensively on HMS Ontario, a military brig lost in 1780."