Pte. Ernie Alvia "Smokey" Smith in his military uniform (battledress and glengarry). He is wearing the ribbon for the Victoria Cross. Ernest Alvia "Smokey" Smith, who was awarded the Victoria Cross. Smith was born in 1914 and was educated at Herbert Spencer Elementary School and T.H. Trapp Technical High School in New Westminster. During WW II, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and was awarded the Victoria Cross for single-handedly defeating a German Counter-attack on the vulnerable Savio River bridgehead in Italy on October 21, 1944. Smith was the only Canadian Private soldier to win the Victoria Cross in the Second World War.