Lieutenant-Colonel C.F. Smith
7th Reconnaissance Regiment (17th Hussars)
31st (Alberta) Reconnaissance Regiment

I believe I have received from you that loyalty which all C.O.s desire most earnestly and is expressed by the following words, “I don’t give a damn for your loyalty when you think I am right, but I do want it when you think I am wrong,” and to me your actions have proved that beyond words.

(War diary, 7 Mar 1942)

Born in Quebec on 5 August 1902, Clarence Fisher Smith was a senior militia officer with the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars. He succeeded Brigadier C.B. Price when he was appointed to command the 3rd Infantry Brigade in November 1939. “I suppose his outstanding characteristic is his loyalty to his subordinates no less than to his superiors,” Price said of his successor, “and it is that same loyalty that I ask you give him.”

In May 1940, the former cavalry regiment mobilized as the 3rd Canadian Motorcycle Regiment under Smith’s command. By February it had been redesignated 7th Reconnaissance Battalion (17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars) and departed for the United Kingdom in August 1941. Troubled by ill health, Smith was recalled to Canada the next year and relinquished command of the regiment. He stated in his farewell address in March 1942:

I cannot tell you how much I regret leaving you all at this time but fate has decreed otherwise. I do know that the new C.O., Major V.W. Hugman, whom you all know, will lead you well in whatever is ahead of the Regiment … In closing, I would just like to tell you that I believe that any success the Regiment has achieved to date is due first of all to the pride that all ranks have shown for their Regiment, and secondly to the Character and Ability of everyone. The combination of these two qualities, plus Courage and Faith in the Justness of our Cause that I know is so strong with you, can only mean a bright and glorious future of the Regiment.

In April 1942, Smith took up his next assignment as commanding officer of the 31st (Alberta) Reconnaissance Regiment. After a year he was succeeded by Major H.H. Riley. Smith served as commandant for a reconnaissance training centre to the end of the war.

He died on 15 June 1965 in Montreal.