[1] Until his death in 1912 her father controlled many aspects of her life, refusing her permission to attend university or marry her cousin, as she had hoped.

[4] However, her greatest interest was in promoting the cause of working women, and this led her to join Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes.

In 1912 she was involved in an arson attack on the country home of the vehemently anti women's suffrage politician Lewis Harcourt.

[8] She was also concerned, in her role as treasurer, that as Sylvia became more outspoken against World War I and, later, in support of communism, that it was discouraging donations to the WSF.

[11] For many years, Smyth had used her photography skills to provide pictures for the newspaper of East End life, particularly of women and children living in poverty.

[14] In November 2018 an exhibition of her hitherto unseen photographs held by the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, opened in London's Four Corners gallery.