Ivo Smith studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and trained at St Mary’s Hospital. After house jobs at the Royal Northern, St Mary’s and the Royal Masonic Hospitals he passed the fellowship of the college in 1960. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Guy’s and the Lewisham Hospitals. He sat on medical appeals tribunals, chaired pension appeal tribunals, and was an examiner for the Professional and Linguistics Assessment Board. A fellow of the Hunterian Society, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Royal Society of Medicine, he was also a fellow of the Zoological Society. He died on 21 May 2018, aged 86.