Harry's Last Stand

Harry Leslie Smith
  • 5.0 (32)
  • NEWS

Survivor of the Great Depression, RAF veteran Activist for the Welfare State Author of Harry's Last Stand Love Among the Ruins, 1923 & The Empress of Australia

  1. I stood with Harry excerpt from new Book About Harry Leslie Smith

    29/05/2021

    I stood with Harry excerpt from new Book About Harry Leslie Smith

    This is an excerpt from the book that I am writing about Harry Leslie Smith, my father. It is about the last 10 years of his life as well as the cancer I was diagnosed with after he died.

    15 min
  2. A year after the death of Harry Leslie Smith's Death his son is diagnosed with Cancer

    09/02/2020

    A year after the death of Harry Leslie Smith's Death his son is diagnosed with Cancer

    The son of Harry Leslie Smith and keeper of his legacy talks about his cancer diagnosis, almost a year to the day of when his father died.

    16 min
  3. Epilogue

    14/01/2019

    Epilogue

    Epilogue to Harry's Leslie Smith's Podcast Harry's Last Stand. A summing up and perhaps a continuation.

    8 min
  4. Harry's Last Stand Episode 13 Christmas

    21/12/2017

    Harry's Last Stand Episode 13 Christmas

    In the snug of a pub while the storms of austerity batter Britain, I chat with you about the effects of poverty during the Great Depression when the Yuletide was a time of despair, for those struggling to stay alive in a world corrupted by greed.

    9 min
  5. Harry's Last Stand Episode 11 We are all at the edge of Destitution

    16/10/2017

    Harry's Last Stand Episode 11 We are all at the edge of Destitution

    Our world is much like the world of my youth;we are all working the coal face for pennies a day. Our wages are flat but our expenses are rising while hope for a better tomorrow is diminishing. Don't ever think Conservatives can save us from destitution because their ideology and greed is what is making us poor.

    9 min
  6. Harry's Last Stand Episode 10 Don't Let My Past Be Your Future

    16/09/2017

    Harry's Last Stand Episode 10 Don't Let My Past Be Your Future

    Harry Leslie Smith reads from his recently published book Don't Let My Past Be Your Future Britain is at its most dangerous juncture since Harry's youth - the NHS and social housing are in crisis, whilst Brexit and an unpopular government continue to divide the country - but there is hope. Just as Clement Attlee provided hope in 1945, Labour's triumphant comeback of June 2017 is a beacon of light in this season of discontent. Britain has overcome adversity before and will do so again - a new nation will be forged from the ashes of grave injustice.

    8 min
  7. Harry's Last Stand Episode 9-Love Among the Ruins

    09/08/2017

    Harry's Last Stand Episode 9-Love Among the Ruins

    I have lived almost 100 years and I am approaching the long night of nonexistence, but I am not afraid because I have survived much turmoil: the Great Depression, the second world war, the cold war, the deaths of friends and also the hardest blows to my spirit, the passing of my beloved wife and middle son. But now, as time dwindles down like a clock with an ageing battery, my heart still beats strong, content and free of rancour because of one single event that changed my life and forged a thousand moments of joy for me. Citizens of Hamburg going about their business in the streets, surrounded by bomb sites and a wrecked building with smoke still pouring from it in about 1943 ‘When off duty, I stumbled through the ruins of Hamburg, overwhelmed by the hunger, the dirt, and the simple despair of ordinary folk.’ It was there I met the woman who became my wife 70 years ago on August 16, 1947 in the shadow of that shattered German city.

    15 min
  8. Episode 8 Harry's Last Stand Theresa May will privatise the NHS if we don't resist the Tories

    20/07/2017

    Episode 8 Harry's Last Stand Theresa May will privatise the NHS if we don't resist the Tories

    Until Labour came to government in 1945, I couldn’t believe that the working class would ever be treated as equal citizens in a society run for the benefit of the 1%. But the creation of the NHS changed my mind. When Labour established the NHS, I felt for the first time to be included in democracy and valued as a citizen by my government.

    11 min
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5
out of 5
32 Ratings

About

Survivor of the Great Depression, RAF veteran Activist for the Welfare State Author of Harry's Last Stand Love Among the Ruins, 1923 & The Empress of Australia

Information

  • Creator
    Harry Leslie Smith
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2021
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Harry's Last Stand