Born on 24 January 1864 the eldest son of (Sir) Thomas Smith FRCS, who became Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital a month later and was afterwards Consulting Surgeon and a Governor, was Vice-president of the College in 1887-8 and 1890-91, and was created a Baronet, of Stratford Place, in 1897. His mother was Ann Eliza Parbury. A younger brother, Gilbert, also became FRCS; the eldest sister married Professor Sir Archibald Garrod FRS, FRCP, and the younger sisters married respectively: C P Crouch FRCS, C E Baker FRCS, and T A Mayo FRCS. Rudolph Smith was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took third-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, part I, in 1889. He received his clinical training at St Bartholomew's, where he was house surgeon, and settled in practice at Stockton-on-Tees about 1897, where he was surgeon to the Stockton and Thornaby Hospital. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1909. He moved to Torquay in 1913, and during the war of 1914-18 was surgeon in command of the Torquay Hospital for Wounded Soldiers. His services were recognised by the CBE in 1920. During 1922 he was the prime mover in building the new Torbay Hospital, to which he became surgeon, and he was consulting surgeon to the Rosehill Children's Hospital, Torquay, and the Brixham and Dartmouth Cottage Hospitals. Sir Rudolph Hampden Smith married in 1897 Ann Ellen, daughter of Joseph William Sharp, but there were no children. Lady Hampden Smith died in 1928 and he survived her by thirty years dying on 25 June 1958 aged 89. His nephew Thomas Turner Smith, eldest son of Gilbert Smith FRCS succeeded him as third Baronet. His recreations were golf, fishing, and gardening. He was a very popular and much respected member of the profession in Devonshire. Publications: Foreign bodies in the salivary duct. *St Bart's Hosp Reps* 1897, 33, 105. Case of Littre's hernia. *Brit med J* 1902, 1, 1474. Chloroform syncope and direct manipulation of the heart. *Brit med J* 1905, 2, 1340. Unusual case of ectopic gestation * J Obstet Gynaec* 1903, 3, 27.