Background
Smith was born at South Shields, County Durham. He left Bede College School, Sunderland at 14 after the death of his merchant navy sea captain father to work in his mother"s ironmongery store and then set up his own business.
Smith was born at South Shields, County Durham. He left Bede College School, Sunderland at 14 after the death of his merchant navy sea captain father to work in his mother"s ironmongery store and then set up his own business.
He trained as a pilot after joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and joined Number. 610 Squadron Royal Air Force. He then joined Number. 616 Squadron Royal Air Force as a sergeant pilot in January 1941 based at Royal Air Force Tangmere.
He was under the command of Wing Commander Douglas Bader who selected him as his wingman in which role he was described as “leech-like", and "a perfect number two".
Two further well-known individuals made up Bader"s section of four aircraft during this period: Johnnie Johnson and "Cocky" Dundas. Three of the four (Bader, Dundas and Smith) went on to receive knighthoods and all four survived the war.
On 9 August 1941 Smith was about to be commissioned and was away in London buying his uniform. He was therefore unavailable to fly and protect his Colorado"s tail and Bader was shot down and spent the remainder of the war as a PoW. Smith then served as an instructor and trained Americans to fly the Spitfire.
He joined Number. 93 Squadron Royal Air Force and took part in Operation Torch flying from Algeria and he shot down four Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters and other aircraft.
After service as a flying instructor in Florida he left the Royal Air Force in December 1945 as a Flight Lieutenant. Smith then moved to Scotland where he became a managing director and then a chief executive in the textile industry. He also served as Chairman of Quayle Munro, merchant bank, in Edinburgh.