William Smiley was born in 1913 and qualified from St Andrews University in 1937. After service in the RAMC with the rank of major, he worked at the Royal Eye Hospital with Sir Benjamin Ryecroft. He was consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Windsor Group at Taplow, Maidenhead and Wexham Park, Slough. He became well-known for his work on uveitis in juvenile rheumatism at Taplow, particularly the complicated cases needing removal of the band keratoplasty and complicated cataracts, and combined cataract and glaucoma. This work enabled him, with Jane Schiller, a visiting scientist, to describe iridocyclitis in those with juvenile onset of arthritis (particularly girls), and its association with antinuclear factor in the blood. In retirement his interests were his garden and ornithology. He left his widow, Helen, four children and ten grandchildren. He died in July 1996 of multiple myeloma.