Personal information

Daughter of Robert Leslie and Olga Margaret Armstrong, of Rosedale, Toronto. Husband of James Martin Smeaton, of Rio de Janeiro. She decided to sail to the UK in order to join the RCAF Women's Division, probably because her husband was serving as radio technician in the RCAF and stationed in England. Her brother Homer Scott Armstrong also served in the RCAF and was flying Hurricane fighters with 135 Squadron RAF in Burma. Margaret Jean Smeaton left their young son James Hugh with her parents in Rio de Janeiro and took passage aboard Highland Brigade to New York, arriving on 2 March 1943. There she transferred to the Vaalaren for the passage to the UK, but was killed on her 28th birthday when the ship was lost with all hands on 5 April 1943.