Second World War veteran Percival Smith was a teenager when he entered the British Merchant Navy, but after years at sea he emerged as a man who returned to a family he “couldn’t even recognize” after the war.
Smith, 101, was among thousands who gathered in downtown Vancouver for the 100th anniversary Remembrance Day ceremony at the Victory Square Cenotaph.
Smith said he was glad to remember friends who gave up their lives to serve king and country during the Second World War, but he didn’t know if his health would stand up to next year’s ceremony at the memorial that was inaugurated the year after his birth.
Smith said although he was in “terrible danger” during most of his service, he and his shipmates didn’t think of dying, but rather “what the next day was going to be like.”
But the danger aside, his time at war gave him …