Born at St Albans, the son of William Bassett-Smith, and educated at St John’s College, Hurstpierpoint. He then entered the Middlesex Hospital, and after acting as House Physician passed into the Navy in 1883. He was promoted to Staff Surgeon in 1895; Fleet Surgeon in 1899, Surgeon Captain in 1917, and retired with the rank of Surgeon Rear-Admiral on April 1st, 1920. During the Sudan campaign of 1884-1885 he served at Suakim as Surgeon on HMS Rambler, receiving the Egyptian medal and the Khedive’s bronze star. During this commission he made valuable reports on the geology and biology of coral reefs, and many of the specimens which he collected were transferred to the British Museum. He served in the surveying ship Penguin from 1891-1893, made valuable reports on subjects of natural history, collected many specimens, and received the thanks of the trustees of the British Museum. In 1899 he was specially promoted to Fleet Surgeon and was awarded the Gilbert Blane Gold Medal for his journal “evincing the proofs of skill, diligence, humanity and learning in the execution of his professional duties”. He was also Cragg’s Research Prizeman at the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1906. Bassett-Smith lectured on tropical medicine and bacteriology at Haslar from 1912-1921, when he became Professor of Clinical Pathology at the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich. He did most valuable work in this position, and on his retirement received a letter from the Lords of the Admiralty expressing appreciation of his services. He practised as a consultant in tropical diseases at 61 Queen Anne Street, W, after retiring from the Navy, and was elected Physician to Out-patients at the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, Victoria Park, and at St John’s Hospital, Lewisham. He was Naval Secretary of the Section of Epidemiology at the Royal Society of Medicine from 1912 until his death, having also served as Vice-President of the Section of Tropical Disease at the annual meetings of the British Medical Association in 1903 and 1912, and of the Army, Navy, and Ambulance Section in 1910. He became a member of the Naval and Military Committee of the British Medical Association in 1921 and served continuously on the Council. In 1922 he was appointed a member of the Committee to consider the expansion of the Army Medical Service in time of national emergency. He married Constance Brightman (d. 1925), daughter of the Rev F Hastings, and by her had two daughters. For her services during the war she was decorated MBE. He died at his home, 8 Aberdeen Terrace, Blackheath, SE, after a short illness on Dec 29th, 1927. Bassett-Smith was for many years the authority on all things pathological in the Royal Navy, combining clinical teaching with his scientific knowledge. He was quiet and somewhat retiring in manner, with a charming personality, but so enthusiastic in advancing scientific knowledge in the Navy that he imperilled his promotion by preferring the laboratory and the hospital to service afloat.