Thomas Gilbart Smith was born in Dublin, the son of Rev. J. Denham Smith, and, after attending a school in Shropshire, he returned to Trinity College to graduate first in arts and secondly, in 1869, in medicine. He completed his medical training at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and in Paris, qualifying in 1871. He was then given a junior post at the Hospital for Sick Children, and held brief appointments at the Margaret Street Infirmary for Consumption and the St. Marylebone General Dispensary. His principal connections were with the London Hospital, to which he was elected assistant physician in 1878 and physician in 1894, and the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. Gilbart Smith was essentially a clinician and a good bedside teacher. A keen supporter of students’ clubs, he was highly popular on account of his ready Irish wit and an unaffected exuberance that manifested itself in a brightly painted carriage and a flamboyant taste in dress. He married in 1870 the daughter of Thomas Bewley of Rockville, Dublin, and had three sons.

G H Brown

[Lancet, 1904; B.M.J., 1904]