Career
In his "Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches" written in 1890, David Bone describes Smith thus:
The least known, perhaps, of the original international men, but one whose name will ever be honoured by many of the older school of players, and locally Queen"s Park members, is Mr. James Smith, who died some years ago in London. This entirely coincided with poor Smith"s play, as he was sometimes very impetuous.
In November 1872, the first officially recognised football international was arranged between Scotland and England.
Unlike the earlier representative matches, all of which had been played at the Kennington Oval in London, this match was played at West of Scotland Cricket Club"s ground at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Glasgow. The match was organised by the Queen"s Park club (the Scottish Football Association was not founded until the following year), who decided that only Queen"s Park members should be selected.
Smith started the match as a half-back. Smith"s brother, Robert, played in the match on 30 November 1872 as one of six forwards.
Thus, he and Robert were the first pair of brothers to play together at international level
Scotland played a 2–2–6 formation (with two backs and two half-backs) while England favoured a more attacking 1–1–8 formation with only two defenders. Despite this, the match ended in a 0–0 draw. Little is known about Smith"s life outside football.
In 1890, he was reported to have "died some years ago in London".