Smith is one of only two members of the UK Merchant Navy to have been awarded the VC for his First World War service.

During this action the "Otaki" scored several hits on the "Möwe", causing considerable damage, and starting a fire which lasted for three days.

He remained on the ship himself and went down with her when she sank with the British colours still flying, after what was described in an enemy account as "a duel as gallant as naval history can relate.

[7] Shortly before World War I, Smith married Edith Clulee (née Powell), whom he had met while working in Port Chalmers, New Zealand.

Möwe's captain, Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, described Otaki's resistance as "a duel as gallant as naval history can relate".

[10] In 1937 his family presented the Otaki Shield to Robert Gordon's College, to be an annual award to the senior boy who is judged "pre-eminent in character, in leadership and in athletics".

The shield is accompanied by the prize of six weeks in New Zealand as Otaki Scholar, visiting various schools as a "roving ambassador" for the college.