Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Smith, Thomas (1833-1909)
SMITH, Sir THOMAS, first baronet (1833–1909), surgeon, born at Blackheath on March 1833, was sixth son of Benjamin Smith, a London goldsmith, by his wife Susannah, daughter of Apsley Pellatt, whose ancestor Thomas Pellatt was president of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1735–9). Two brothers became canons of Canterbury, and a third, Stephen, was prime warden in the Goldsmiths' Company in 1885-6.
Tom Smith was educated at Tonbridge school, which he entered in Lent term, 1844. His father, having suffered reverses in business, apprenticed his son to Sir James Paget [q. v. Suppl. I] in 1847. Smith was thus the last of the 'hospital apprentices' at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was admitted M.R.C.S. in 1854, and in August became house surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street. This post he resigned from ill-health on 7 Dec. receiving a special minute of commendation from the committee of management. Taking rooms in Bedford Row, he coached pupils for examinations and at the same time assisted Paget in his private and hospital practice. From 1857 onwards for several years it was his custom to take a class of students to Paris in the Easter vacation, where, with the help of Brown-Sequard [q. v. Suppl. I], he taught them operative surgery. The outcome of this work was a 'Manual of Operative Surgery on the Dead Body,' published in 1859 (2nd edit. 1876). In 1858 he was admitted F.R.C.S.England, and in 1859 was appointed, jointly with George W. Callender, demonstrator of anatomy and operative surgery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was elected assistant surgeon on 24 Feb. 1864 on the resignation of Frederick Carpenter Skey [q. v.], and for a time had charge of the aural department. He was appointed surgeon in 1873. In the medical school attached to the hospital he lectured on anatomy j ointly with Callender from 1871. On resigning his hospital appointments on 10 March 1898 at the retiring age of sixty-five he was appointed a consulting surgeon.
From 1858 to 1861 Smith was assistant surgeon at the Great Northern Hospital, then recently established in York Road, King's Cross. In September 1861 he was elected assistant surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street, where he was surgeon from June 1868 to November 1883 and afterwards consulting surgeon. He was also surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for hip disease in Queen Square. Smith was surgical secretary of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society (1870-2), and he contributed to the 'Transactions' of this body (vol. 51, p. 79) his paper 'On the Cure of Cleft Palate by Operation in Children, with a Description of an Instrument for Facilitating the Operation.' The method recommended in this paper governed the technique of the operation for many years. He also took an important part in the commission appointed to report upon the administration of remedies by hypodermic injection. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England Smith was elected a member of the council in 1880. He acted as a vice-president in 1887-8, and again in 1890-1, but he refused nomination for the office of president. He was chosen a trustee of the Hunterian collection in 1900. He was gazetted surgeon-extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1895, in succession to Sir William Savory [q. v.], and was created a baronet in 1897. He actively aided the Misses Keyser in founding their home for officers wounded in the South African war, and was created K.C.V.O. in 1901. Becoming an honorary serjeant-surgeon to King Edward VII on his accession in 1901, he was in attendance when Sir Frederick Treves operated on the King on the day appointed for the Coronation (24 June 1902). He lived at 7 Montagu Street, Russell Square, until 1868, when he removed to 5 Stratford Place, Oxford Street, where he died on 1 Oct. 1909. He was buried in the Finchley cemetery.
He married on 27 Aug. 1862 Ann Eliza, second daughter of Frederick Parbury, an Australian by birth. She died on 9 Feb. 1879, shortly after the birth of her ninth child, and in 1880 he instituted in her memory the Samaritan Maternity Fund at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Through fife Smith trusted more to his own observation and experience than to knowledge acquired from others. A dexterous operator, a sure guide in difficult questions of diagnosis, and a first-rate clinical teacher of surgery, he was popular with students, who appreciated his wit and humour.
A three-quarter length in oils — a good likeness — painted by the Hon. John Collier, hangs in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was presented by his colleagues and old pupils with a replica for himself on his retirement from the hospital in 1898.
[St. Bartholomew's Hosp. Reports, vol. xl. 1909; Lancet, 1909, ii. 1108; personal knowledge.]