Sadly my pal Donald Smith passed away aged 100 on
14/03/2020.

Don always worked hard to remember his pals that never came home from the war, helping to raise awareness for veterans charities and when his health allowed he always attended the Cenotaph to commemorate his friends.  

Donald Smith joined the territorials at the age of 16 and later in 1938 he joined the Seaforth Highlanders signing up with some of his friends from school.

In January 1940 he went to France as part of the 51^st Highland Division.

As part of the 4^th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders Donald was on a Bren gun holding the perimeter around St Valery en-Caux at the town of Veules-les-Roses. His group were attacked by a Panzer division and a shell explosion killed two of his friends either side of him. Don was severely wounded and made his way into the town of St Valery where he passed out from blood loss and was captured by the Germans. 

After some time in a Hospital Don was held as a PoW at Stalag 8B Lamsdorf in Poland. Don took part in the notorious ‘death march’ at the end of the war when allied PoW’s were marched West away from the advance of the allies, his 4 month long march ended after being released by the Americans.

In 2018 Don (then aged 97) worked exceptionally hard recounting the story of the 51st Highland Division in the Channel 4 documentary Dunkirk The Forgotten Heroes. Don was sadly the last surviving veteran from the documentary. 

Don's family have asked that donations be made to Erskine as while Don was not in their care the charity works hard to make life easier for thousands of veterans.