[2] Often the prize has been considered to have a high prestige value since it has encouraged the Doctor of Medicine graduates (MD) of the world-renowned university to write the best thesis among them.
[3][4] Richard Horton Horton-Smith, MA, KC (4 December 1831 – 2 November 1919[5]) was a barrister and a Masonic Lodge Officer.
At the Lincoln's Inn, London, he was called to the Bar in 1859, becoming Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1877, Bencher in 1881, Trustee in 1884, Governor of Tancred's Charities in 1889, and Treasurer in 1903.
[6] He was author of many books and articles (with John Peter De Gex he wrote the book Arrangements between Debtors and Creditors under the Bankruptcy Act, 1861)[7] and was also Honorable Counsel to the Royal Philharmonic Society, Director of the Royal Academy of Music, and vice-president of the Bar Musical Society.
[6] His third son Raymond John Horton-Smith (16 March 1873 – 8 Oct 1899), who studied medicine at several universities including the St John's College, Cambridge, gaining MB BCh, MA, MRCS, LRCP and achieving brilliant results (Wainwright Prizeman at University of London), died of tuberculosis at Davos, Switzerland, aged 27.