#10935, John Lindsay Eric SMITH

Sir John was a scion of an old banking family:Smiths of Nottingham, founded in the 1650s and merged with the National Provincial Bank after the first World War. His father became its chairman. His mother was the daughter of Albert Williams and granddaughter of Sir George Williams, founder of the YMCA and a great-granddaughter of Thomas Cook. He joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1942 and served in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He was navigator in an operation to dive-bomb the Tirpitz in July 1944. After the war he went up to New College, Oxford where he became an honorary fellow in 1979.
He followed the family tradition becoming a director of Coutts & Co, the ninth generation of his family to do so, remaining for 43 years until 1993. He served as High Steward of Maidenhead and Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, being knighted in 1988. He worked extensively for a number of conservation bodies.