Smith was the son of former Chichester MP John Abel Smith and Anne née Clarke-Jervoise.[2] He married Margaret Louisa Verney, daughter of Robert Verney in 1874, and they had issue.[4]
He was a partner in the banking firm Smith, Payne, and Smiths,[3] the first British bank believed to be formed outside London but later gaining a home on Lombard Street. In 1881, he worked at the bank with Samuel George Smith, Robert Smith, Oswald Augustus Smith, Eric Carrington Smith, and Martin Ridley Smith.[5]