Farewell Harry, a giant among men
■ I WAS very sad to learn of the death of the committed socialist Harry Leslie Smith. He was a giant of the Labour movement and an example to everyone struggling for a better world. He lived through the Great Depression and the Second World War and learned the lessons of history.
He sympathised with the hundreds of thousands of refugees he saw on the roads of post-war Europe and saw today’s politics through those experiences. To the last, he stood in solidarity with refugees and immigrants – knowing the Tories and their profit-based system are the enemy.
As someone whose earliest years were spent struggling with desperate poverty, he warned us not to let his past become our future. He is now with his beloved wife Friede while we are left with his legacy.
Sasha Simic, North London
■ I couldn’t hold back the tears on hearing about the passing of the inimitable Harry Leslie Smith. He was the epitome of all that was good in the world and stood against everything that was evil. Typically, at 95 years of age, Harry went down fighting, having had a fall just before he was due to fly out to help refugees. Harry believed, as I do, in the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” On hearing that Harry was critically ill in hospital, his close friend Mirror columnist Ros Wynne-Jones said the thought of losing Harry will be too much to bear – and it is. Eric Thorpe, Salford, Gtr Manchester
■ Although I was very sad to read that campaigner Harry Leslie Smith had passed away, his was a life well lived. He worked tirelessly for the common good and never missed an opportunity to blast this dreadful Tory Government, which he accused of taking us back to impoverished days of the 1930s.
Having experienced fascism and the Second World War, Harry wanted people to know the true effects of intolerance and hatred, and it was fitting that his last project was to help refugees. Harry made the world a better place, how many politicians can say the same? S Hughes, Swansea
■ Two very different articles caught my eye in Thursday’s Mirror. The first a report on the shameful and vicious attack on a teenage boy at a school in Huddersfield just for being an immigrant. The second was your tribute to social justice advocate Harry Leslie Smith. I am sure Harry would have been sickened by this brutal racist assault. This terrible incident highlights how we need to teach our children the virtues of tolerance and humanity, attributes which Harry had in spades. Victoria Smith, Sheffield
■ If only a few people have taken heed and acted on Harry’s observations about what war does to people then his time on this Earth has been well spent.
His profound sense of fairness for folk will be sadly missed. RIP, Harry.
Pat Harrington, Port Talbot