Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Six years after his discharge from the RAN, Albert Smith and his wife Bridget became the foster parents of Patricia Jean Smith, who  later married Clarence William Beckett. After her divorce in the late 1950s she became better known as Patsy Adam-Smith, the well known Australian author.

Albert Smith's RAN record is sparse and just lists the ships he served on as well as spending time in London. However, Adam-Smith in two of her books - 'Hear the Train Blow (Nelson 1982) and 'Goodbye Girlie' (Penguin 1994) mentions some of her foster father's war experiences. They have not been validated, but do correspond date wise with Smith's RAN record.

On the outbreak of WW1 Australia sent a force including HMAS Australia to Rabual and Smith was in the landing party that captured the German radio station with the personnel taken as prisoners-of-war.

He spent time in a London hospital and his injuries were such that he was invalidated out from the RAN and could never father a child.

He worked for the Victorian Railways and regularly moved his family from small localities. In 1940 wearing his naval uniform he led the Anzac Day march at Penshurst in western Victoria.

At his funeral the Navy provided the White Ensign to cover his coffin, and his cortege was preceded by an officer and men in summer whites. A bugler played the 'Last Post'. Albert Smith led a humble life but was the type of man who gave his all for his country. Lest We Forget.