The son of Admiral Spencer Smyth. He was apprenticed in June, 1837, and entered as a medical student at Middlesex Hospital in 1840. There he gained the prize for materia medica, and in 1840 an honours certificate for surgery and chemistry; in 1842 the Surgical Anatomy Prize and an honours certificate in surgery; also a prize for his "Essay upon the Pathology and Treatment of Puerperal Insanity". He practised for thirty years at Great Yarmouth, where he was Surgeon to the Hospital, and was one of the Medical Officers of the Hospital for Cholera during the Yarmouth epidemic of 1849; he was also Surgeon to the Borough Gaol and Police Force, and Second Surgeon of the East Norfolk Militia. He afterwards removed to Forest Hill, SE, where he was Surgeon to the Children's Home and Infirmary, Lower Sydenham, and to the London Dispensary for Women and Children. About 1895 he retired to Tunbridge Wells, where he died, at 3 Grosvenor Gardens, on October 26th, 1906. His photograph is in the Council Album.