Gerard Thomas Corley Smith (30 July 1909 – 7 October 1997) is remembered chiefly for his work in protecting the unique environment of the Galápagos Islands and his support for the Charles Darwin Foundation, established in 1959.
During World War II he was in St Louis and New York, and was engaged in the effort to persuade Americans that Britain's lonely resistance to the Nazis was a grim battle for freedom that the United States should recognise to be in their interest to join.
As Britain's EcoSoc representative, Corley Smith was chosen to present the case against the Soviet forced labour camps, or gulags, the existence of which was only then beginning to be revealed to the world.
Corley Smith worked to establish a national park to protect the Galápagos environment under Ecuadorean control, and organised a British-financed study to recommend how the needs of conservation should be reconciled with the development of tourism to help the economy of the islands.
The first council meeting he attended was in England, at Down House, Darwin's former home, where members saw in the tall, silver-haired and distinguished-looking former diplomat a remarkable likeness to the portrait there of T. H. Huxley.
While the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) on the islands was managed by a resident director, all the CDF administration and other international work – including the production of a bi-annual bulletin Noticias de Galápagos – were carried out from Corley Smith's home, Greensted Hall, in Essex.
He is credited with successfully promoting and maintaining a good working relationship between the national government and the international scientific body, which was seen by many in Ecuador as encroaching on their territory.
On handing over the role in 1984, Corley Smith was awarded the Order of Merit by the Ecuadorean government, and continued to visit the Galápagos often – eight times in the next 12 years – and to travel widely round the world.