In his memoirs, Way of Life, his fellow Conservative John Boyd-Carpenter described Smithers as "an extreme Tory out of a vanished age" and both deeply religious and "not insensitive to the consoling effect of alcohol".
Smithers remained as member for Chislehurst until the 1945 general election, when he switched to the newly created Orpington constituency.
Chislehurst fell to the Labour Party, but Smithers was comfortably elected in Orpington, and held the seat until he died.
[3] Hampstead's Conservative MP, Charles Challen, promised to give the petition his "unstinting support"[3][4] and he asked a number of questions in the House of Commons on behalf of the petitioners over the following months.
[6] In the 2008 TV drama The Long Walk to Finchley, about the early career of Margaret Thatcher, Smithers was played by Michael Cochrane.