Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The life of Robert Bruce Smith was researched by my father, Philip Walter Smith. Philip was one of Bruce's many first cousins. His father, Percy Smith was a brother to Walter Charles Smith - Phil's father. I am Phil's son. They were a Wandiligong family where Percy and Walter were born, along with their siblings.
In 2017 Phil published 'The Blacksmith's Family'. This is an account of 3 generations of the Smith family. It includes Bruce and my father's generation.
The book has what is by far the most detailed record of Bruce's life and includes a thorough account of the disaster that took his life on the 19th of February, 1948. As a man in his late 80s, and almost 70 years after the event, Bruce's death frequently moved my father to tears. It was such a futile death and so unnecessary, killing men who had survived service in WW2, just to die in this accident, 3 years after the end of the War. The ISBN number of 'The Blacksmith's Family' is 978-0-646-96142-2. The book can be found at the National Library of Australia and in Melbourne's State Library. It is also held by the Genealogical Society of Victoria.