RATBAG SOLDIER SAINT

… an extraordinarily well researched book on the life of the first living Jewish soldier to win the Victoria Cross.’
– Bob Ansett, entrepreneur

‘Ratbag, Soldier, Saint brilliantly recounts the unusual life of Sergeant Issy Smith VC, a Jewish war hero of WWI, revealing the many
challenges he and his family faced in Australia and England during the war and in the post-war years. A captivating read!’
– MAJGEN (Retd) Jeffrey V Rosenfeld

Who was this hero, Issy Smith VC?

There were whispers that he emerged from somewhere in Eastern Europe out of poverty, delivering fish before dawn in London’s East End, before joining the army at just thirteen. Averse to authority, he was a military superior’s nightmare.

Living in Australia when World War 1 broke out, he was despatched to the Western Front where – gassed, bombed and working against remarkable odds – he saved the lives of many and was awarded the Victoria Cross. Wild tales soon abounded about his life and escapades. Which of the stories were real?

With painstaking research of original sources and a novelist’s eye, his granddaughter Lian Knight recreates the real life and tumultuous times of Sergeant Issy Smith VC.

… a story of courage and caring, of leadership and life for a man who stood apart from most others. Issy was a patriot, a family man, a man of the community, a VC recipient – but he was also a man who struggled with the repercussions of war.

‘Lian Knight captures the soul of her grandfather.’

-Ange Kenos FRVAHJ

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