Alexander Power, before working as a grazing Farmer on Romney Marsh, later moving to Hendon in Middlesex where he continued to farm for 37 years.

As a boy he had acquired great skill in the construction of model boats and took special interest in their means of propulsion.

The following year he built a superior model with which he performed a number of experiments at Hendon and in 1836 took out a patent for propelling vessels by means of a screw revolving beneath the water at the stern.

[2] Between 1864 and 1870 he resided in an elegant Victorian house at 17 Sydenham Hill SE26, near Crystal Palace Park, a fact noted on a Blue Plaque.

Smith died at 15 Thurloe Place, South Kensington in February 1874, and is buried in St Leonards Cemetery, Hythe, Kent.