Dan Smith qualified in Manchester, did his house jobs at the Hope Hospital, Salford, and continued his surgical training at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford before going to Taunton and Exeter to specialise in ENT. He was a competent diver and enjoyed outdoor pursuits such as fell-walking and skiing. He played the French horn and was a former member of the Clwyd and North Wales Youth Orchestras. It was after a party in Richmond that he sustained serious head injuries in a fall from a first floor window following an assault. He was rushed to the Atkinson Morley Hospital, Wimbledon, but died four days later on 29 November 2000 survived by his parents and two brothers. A memorial lecture was set up in his memory.