Smith was born in Salthill, County Galway, and worked as a farmer prior to joining the force as Garda 1969 on 18 October 1922.
The area was subject to an unusually severe cloud burst that led to flooding at a house about a mile from the Garda Station.
Arriving at the scene with his colleagues Sergeant Staunton and Garda Connolly, they persuaded a lorry driver to take them to the house, which, located in a hollow, was fast becoming a torrential lake.
Garda Smith "plunged through the torrent, risking the treacherous pot-holes which surrounded the building, seized Mrs Woodroofe and passed her to his colleagues who had followed him.
Smith spent much of his later life and career in the Tipperary Division, retiring on 9 January 1954 after serving thirty-one years and sixty-one days.