Sir Sydney Alfred Smith CBE OPR FRSE (4 August 1883 – 8 May 1969), was a forensic scientist, pathologist and one of the pre-eminent medico-legal specialists in the world.

He transferred to medicine and graduated with an MB ChB in 1912, with first-class honours, and then undertook a research scholarship, receiving a Diploma in Public Health (DPH) in 1913.

Following a short period in general practice, Smith became an assistant in at the University of Edinburgh department of forensic medicine at the suggestion of Professor Henry Harvey Littlejohn.

[15] In the New Year Honours 1949 Smith was appointed as a Knight Bachelor[16] and invested by King George VI on 4 March 1949.

Because of the build-up of adipocere in the bodies, a result of their being immersed in a cold flooded quarry, Littlejohn and Smith were able to provide important evidence in the trial, leading to the conviction and execution of Higgins.

[3] The two scientists' famous work gained notoriety 94 years later, when a relative of the boys asked for the return of specimens taken from their remains from the University of Edinburgh, for a proper burial.

[22][23] Working in Egypt in 1924, Smith used pioneering techniques of forensic ballistics to identify the assassins of Lee Stack.

[18] In 1937, Smith produced a profile of the Falkirk cat burglar, using a pair of shoes, predating the field of forensic podiatry.