Howard Smith

Sir Howard Frank Trayton Smith (15 October 1919 – 7 May 1996) was a British diplomat who served as Director General of MI5 from 1978 to 1981.

Career Smith was born and raised in Wembley. He was educated at Regent Street Polytechnic and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he won an exhibition to read mathematics and was a contemporary of Asa Briggs, with whom he played chess. At the outset of the Second World War he was drafted to work at Bletchley Park as a codebreaker, recommending his friend Briggs to fellow Cambridge mathematician Gordon Welchman for service in Hut 6.

From 1946 to 1950, Smith served in the Foreign Service in Oslo and Washington. In 1953, he was Consul in Caracas; between 1961 and 1963, he was Counsellor of State in Moscow.

Honours

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1966 Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1976 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1981