Harry Leslie Smith, the 'world's oldest rebel', dead at 95

Harry Leslie Smith.
Harry Leslie Smith. Photo credit: Twitter/HarrysLastStand

An elderly UK man known for his online activism has passed away at the age of 95.

Harry Leslie Smith was born the son of a coalminer, and lived through severe poverty during his childhood.

He joined the Royal Air Force during WWII before eventually settling in Canada. In his later years he became an author, Guardian columnist and prolific Twitter user.

He called himself the "world's oldest rebel".

Primarily, Mr Smith wrote about the poor and refugees. The Guardian's obituary for him says his video essay on refugees was viewed more than 2 million times.

Mr Smith visited refugee camps as a nonagenarian, and often tweeted to criticise Government policies and what he perceived as injustice.

"On International Men's Day remember that a sense of entitlement is the surest way to a half-lived life," he wrote, in one of the final tweets he wrote himself.

https://twitter.com/Harryslaststand/status/1064496698448334848

Mr Smith earned a reputation for taking on trolls and Donald Trump.

"In 1939, I didn't hear war coming. Now its thundering approach can't be ignored," he wrote in a piece for the Guardian last year, comparing the rise of Mr Trump to that of Adolf Hitler.

"As a teenager I would just laugh at newsreels of Hitler and other fascists. I hope what happened next is not witnessed again by my grandchildren's generation."

His son John Smith used that account to announce his death, after weeks of tweeting on behalf of his father from his bedside.

"At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan," he said.

https://twitter.com/Harryslaststand/status/1067701557007806465

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