John Norman Smith Lieutenant-Commander HMCS Raccoon, Royal Canadian Naval Reserve January 9, 1904 Portishead, Somerset, England December 26, 1933 29 Halifax, NS Halifax, NS Master Mariner Episcopalian Married Dorothy Smith (Wife) Halifax, NS September 7, 1942 38 Halifax Memorial Panel 6 Commemorated on Page 115 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 11. John Smith was the son of Frederick Hugh Smith, and Alice Smith, of Bristol, England. He lived in England until 1924 and then in the United States until 1929. He married Dorothy S. Smith in Halifax in 1929 where he lived until his enlistment. He was the father of two children. Prior to his enlistment with the Canadian Navy he was employed with the Canadian National Steamship Company as First Officer on the HMS Lady Rodney, a passenger and cargo vessel providing a service between Montreal (Halifax and Saint John in Winter) and Jamaica, calling en route at Bermuda and Nassau from 1929 until WWII. He served between December 13 , 1941 and September 7, 1942 as Master of HMCS Raccoon. He was lost, killed in action, in the sinking of HMCS Raccoon when it was torpedoed by enemy action. HMCS Raccoon was an armed yacht The ship was purchased by the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940, originally known as Halonia. In 1942 the ship was assigned to the naval base at Gaspe to patrol the St. Lawrence River and Gulf and to escort convoys of ships from Quebec to Sydney, Halifax or Newfoundland. HMCS Raccoon was sunk by the German submarine U-165 in the St. Lawrence River on September 7, 1942 while escorting Convoy QS-33. The entire ship's crew of 37 was lost.

Toronto Daily Star - Wednesday September 16, 1942 Credit: Newspaper clipping /photo Operation: Picture Me