WWII veteran Harry Smith dies at 95

British World War II veteran and political activist Harry Leslie Smith has died. He was 95.

His son John said on Twitter that Smith died Wednesday morning. He had been hospitalised in Canada following a recent fall.

Smith was an outspoken human rights activist with a Twitter following of more than 250,000.

He had come to prominence in recent years with his advocacy of the National Health Service and the need to protect refugees.

He argued that greed and globalism were stripping away the advances wrought by his generation, which had survived the Great Depression and World War II.

Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband tweeted that Smith was "one of a kind who never wavered in his fight for equality and justice. We should all carry his passion, optimism and spirit forward."

(With inputs from agencies.)