Here in Canada, the last surviving recipient of the Victoria Cross died this week-end.
There have been stories about him in all the major newspapers.
His earthly remains are being honoured by being exposed in Parliament. He was received with full military honours. The Prime Minister and Governor-General came to pay their last respects.
He has an honour guard and people are lining up around the block, and bringing their young children to pay their respects.
Victoria Cross recipient Ernest (Smokey) Smith was honoured yesterday as no other veteran has been, getting a war hero's farewell on Parliament Hill that had scores of people lining up in blistering heat to pay their final respects.
Against the backdrop of tolling bells and wailing bagpipes, the day-long vigil began when pallbearers from the Seaforth Highlanders, Sgt. Smith's beloved regiment, carried the former soldier's remains in a flag-draped casket into the Centre Block.
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=82e072fd-d7a7-4bd5-ae17-8588f55ee319
Parliament Hill officials said some people waited more than three hours to pay their respects.
"I think it shows how Canadians care for their military and for those who have served their country," said Pierre Senecal, who was among those paying his respects yesterday.
"Mr. Smith was not always 91 years old. He was a soldier who found himself in the middle of a difficult situation where he proved he was worth his salt."
Sgt. Smith won the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour that Canadian and British troops could earn in the Second World War, for his heroics on a rainy night in northern Italy in the fall of 1944.
The 30-year-old private -- who was promoted to sergeant after receiving the Victoria Cross -- single-handedly repelled a German counterattack on the Savio River that involved three Panzer tanks, two self-propelled guns and about 30 infantry.
Sgt. Smith had a reputation for being irreverent, funny and enjoying a drink and a cigar.
"He was a very colourful man, which is often the trait of people who are hard to stop," said Charles Belzile, honorary grand president of the Royal Canadian Legion. "And he was."
Read all about this courageous and irreverent man who was promoted and busted back to private three times during WWII and yet managed to collect the highest military honour in Canada.