Issy Smith

Saved his wounded comrades under heavy enemy fire near Ypres

Issy Smith was born Ishroulch Shmeilowitz at Alexandria, Egypt, into a Polish Jewish family. As a boy he reached London as a stowaway, attended school in Whitechapel and delivered fish. He enlisted in the Manchester Regiment in 1904. Service in South Africa and India included boxing, and he attended the Delhi Durbar in 1911.

After leaving regular service in 1912 he moved to Australia and worked in Melbourne. Recalled as a reservist in 1914, he returned to the Manchesters. At the Second Battle of Ypres on 26 April 1915, he left his company to reach a badly wounded man near the enemy lines. Carrying him about 250 yards through machine gun and rifle fire, Smith brought him to safety. He continued helping other wounded soldiers throughout the day.

The action brought the Victoria Cross. He also received French and Russian decorations. Further service took him to Mesopotamia and Palestine, and he was repeatedly wounded during the war.

In 1919 Smith married Elsie McKechnie. Civilian work included entertainment management and sales. Illness and unemployment forced him to pawn his medals, prompting assistance from the Jewish community. Returning to Australia in 1925, he became a film-company manager, a justice of the peace and later an official at Essendon aerodrome. He unsuccessfully contested a federal parliamentary seat in 1931.

Smith and Elsie had a daughter and a son. He died at Moonee Ponds on 11 September 1940 and was buried with military honours in the Jewish section of Fawkner Cemetery.

Official citation:

For most conspicuous bravery on the 26 April, 1915, near Ypres, when he left his company on his own initiative, and went well forward to the enemy’s position to assist a severely wounded man, whom he carried a distance of 250 yards into safety, whilst exposed the whole time to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire.

Subsequently Corporal Smith displayed great gallantry, when the casualties were very heavy, in voluntarily assisting to bring in many more wounded men throughout the day and attending to them with the greatest devotion to duty regardless of personal risk.