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Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Issy Smith (c. 18 September 1890 – 11 September 1940) was a British Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to eligible forces of the Commonwealth and United Kingdom. In recognition of his VC, he was also awarded the French [[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France) and Russian Cross of St. George (4th class) by the respective governments. Born Ishroulch Shmeilowitz (and other renderings), to parents residing in Egypt, Smith travelled to Britain as a child stowaway and first volunteered to serve in the British Army in 1904. He emigrated to Australia after discharge, where he remained until mobilised as a reservist in 1914. As a corporal in the 1st Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, Smith was engaged in the Second Battle of Ypres. On 26 April 1915, Smith, on his own initiative, recovered wounded soldiers while exposed to sustained fire and attended to them "with the greatest devotion to duty regardless of personal risk". His conduct secured a recommendation for the Victoria Cross, which was awarded to Smith in August 1915.

Smith was born in Alexandria, the son of French citizens Moses and Eva Shmeilowitz, who were of Russian Jewish origin. His father was employed by the French Consulate General as a clerk. Aged 11, Smith embarked as a stowaway aboard a vessel proceeding to London. Undaunted by this unfamiliar environment, Smith attended Berner Street School, Commercial Street, and worked as a deliverer in the East End, Persecution and extreme deprivation had compelled millions of Eastern European Jews to migrate to Western Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere. By the time of Issy Smith's arrival, Jewish immigration to Britain had peaked but was curtailed by the enactment of the Aliens Act in 1905. He joined the British Army in 1904, becoming a private in the Manchester Regiment. The pseudonym Issy Smith was adopted in the process of enlisting at the behest of a recruiting sergeant. Smith completed his training, serving in South Africa and India with the 1st Battalion. He boxed competitively, winning the British Army's middleweight championship, and played football. While in India, Smith was present at the Delhi Durbar parade, in which the 1st Manchesters participated, and was thus awarded the Delhi Durbar Medal.

The 1st Manchester Regiment, stationed in India, sailed from Karachi for France on 29 August 1914 as the constituent British battalion of the Jullundur Brigade, 3rd (Lahore) Division. The battalion disembarked at Marseilles in late September, but was not deployed to the front until 26 October 1914, when it occupied trenches east of Festubert. Actively engaged in the battles of Givenchy and Neuve Chapelle, the 1st Manchesters had incurred hundreds of casualties by the beginning of "Second Ypres" on 22 April 1915. Chemical warfare first emerged on the Western Front during the German offensive, and Smith himself would be temporarily incapacitated by gas. The 1st Manchesters were involved in an initially successful counter attack conducted by the Jullundur and Ferozepore brigades on 26 April 1915, near Wieltje, in conjunction with other Allied units. Rudimentary forms of protection against the chlorine gas proved ineffectual, limiting the advance and causing many soldiers to succumb to its effects. He was feted by publications such as The Jewish Chronicle, and his status as a recipient of the VC was utilised by the British government for the purposes of stimulating further recruitment. His visits to Jewish communities in the United Kingdom generated much interest, attracting dignitaries and large crowds in the process. Also that month, Smith was received at Mansion House, Dublin, by the Under Secretary for Ireland, Matthew Nathan, who took advantage of the occasion to reaffirm loyalty to both Britain and Ireland. Contemporaries, however, continued to report instances of discrimination against Jewish servicemen, including an incident involving Issy Smith in Leeds. While documenting his recruitment drive, The Jewish Chronicle reported that the proprietor of the Grand Restaurant had refused to serve Smith during his tour of Yorkshire because he was Jewish, while indicating the staff were prepared to accept his non Jewish acquaintance. Smith's tour continued otherwise without disruption, taking him to Edinburgh, Scotland. Meanwhile, on the Western Front, the demoralised and depleted Indian Corps fought its final European battle at Loos. With the exception of two cavalry divisions, the Indian Corps in Europe redeployed to the Middle East theatre, sailing from Marseilles on 10 December 1915 and arriving in Basra on 8 January 1916 to be integrated into the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. In October 1921, with Harry Kenny, he unveiled the Hackney War Memorial. In 1922, he attended "The Pilgrimage to Ypres", in Belgium, laying a wreath at the Cloth Hall there.

Despite his fame and popularity, like many former servicemen contending with post war economic hardship, Smith struggled financially – a predicament compounded by illness. As a consequence he pawned his medals for £20, only for them to be recovered by the Jewish Historical Society on the urging of the wife of Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz and ultimately reunited with Smith. Smith's varied occupations in post war Britain included work as an actor with a theatre troupe. He emigrated to Australia in 1925 with his wife Elsie (née McKechnie), whom he had married at Camberwell Register Office. Marriage to Elsie produced two children (Olive and Maurice) and reputedly angered his parents despite the couple's later observance of Jewish religious tradition in a formal ceremony held at Central Synagogue, Hallam Street.