leg was badly shattered and he was thrown high into the air and out of the vehicle. At least four enemy machine guns began firing at the area where the flash of the exploding mine had been seen. Smith and his two signallers crawled away through the grain field, with machine gun bullets flying all around. One of the bullets ricocheted off the ground and hit Smith in the side of his head, embedding itself behind his right ear. Smith was evacuated from the war zone, and ultimately repatriated to Canada in November 1944. After spending several months in hospitals in France, the UK and Canada, Smith began a staff job at Kingston. In relatively short order though, as a result of the lingering effects of his injuries, he was medically discharged from the army. Years later Smith speculated that he may be lucky to have been wounded, as the chances were high that he would have been killed had he remained in action. In addition to having won the Military Cross for gallantry, Smith received several service medals to recognize his war service: the 1939-1945 Star; the France and Germany Star; the Defence Medal; the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with overseas bar; and the War Medal 1939-1945. In 2014, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy, Smith's wartime service was further recognized when France awarded him its ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour). Following the war, in 1948, Smith joined an infantry reserve unit in Kingston, the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment (PWOR), in which he served as a company commander until 1954. He later served as the PWOR's Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel from 1968 to 1974, and as the Honorary Colonel from 1974 to 1985 and again from 1992 to 1995. Legal career Following his service in World War II, Smith in 1945 began to work at becoming a lawyer. In Ontario at that time, prospective lawyers went through a three-year Bar admission process, involving “articling” (in effect apprenticing) at a law firm, while also taking some courses part-time at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Smith completed this process in 1948 and was admitted to Ontario's legal profession as a barrister and solicitor. Several years later, he was granted a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree; this degree was retroactively offered, in 1991, to persons who had been graduated by Osgoode Hall