Educated at Blundell's School and the University of St Andrews, on the outbreak of World War II he quit his studies and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, serving in the Western Desert and then in Burma.
As the service grew, sport became an important part of the BBC's output, and Smith was soon interviewing golf champions on camera as well as producing the programme.
In the historic coverage of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Smith was one of the commentators, stationed on the Victoria Memorial, London.
Though a senior figure in television for nearly forty years, Smith only appeared in front of the cameras himself a few times in the 1950s, most memorably as one of the BBC's gentlemen-callers who descended on celebrities of the day for a quaint programme called At Home.
When he went calling, his manner conveyed a faint threat that he might stir his tea with his pencil or absent-mindedly pinch her ladyship's bottom, thus giving the proceedings a hint of the danger that all good live TV needs".
In 1958, Smith transferred his talents in the same position as chief of outside broadcasts to the newly enfranchised ITV contractor, Southern Television.
At that time the committee was there to ensure that only suitable programmes should fill the break in the Sunday evening schedules in order to protect church services.