[3] John was awarded a scholarship in Classics to Jesus College Cambridge and started his degree in 1938.
He was subsequently sent to fly first Wellington bombers and then Mosquito fighters in the WWII Burma campaign.
[1] He believed heavily in teaching classics in a way that would help student live their lives; by asking questions about how the world worked, students can understand "the choices perennially open to human beings and human societies in the conduct of their affairs.
[2] During this time he wrote three volumes of personal reminiscences including 'The Message in the Bottle' (2000) about his wartime experiences.
Speaking about him after his death, John's son, Nick Sharwood Smith, described him as "an excellent speaker" and that he always had "a desire to understand himself better.