James Aikman Smith

James Aikman Smith (1859–1931) was a Scottish rugby union player and later became an international referee. He became the 47th President of the Scottish Rugby Union.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Smith played for Royal HSFP.

Referee career

Smith refereed internationally in the Home Nations Championship. He refereed the England versus Ireland match in 1892; the England versus Wales match in 1894 and the Wales versus England match in 1895.

He refereed an Oxford University versus Edinburgh Wanderers match in 1896.

He refereed in the Scottish Unofficial Championship. and 1897.

An indication of how much a stickler for the rules Smith was, is found in the aftermath of a match he refereed between Gala and Hunslet, an English side from Yorkshire, in late 1893. The Scottish Rugby Union had ruled that shinguards must be worn by the players for safety. Other unions had not made shinguards compulsory. Furthermore, the SRU rule stated that shinguards should be worn outside the sock, presumably to aid policing of the new rule. Hunslet refused to comply with this; and Smith and the SRU then complained to the English Union. The SRU attested that the captain of Hunslet was guilty of misconduct on two points:- for the shinguards situation; and for complaining to the referee when Smith had chalked off a try for offside during the match itself.

The Yorkshire Rugby Union heard about this complaint in early 1894 and conducted their own investigation. The SRU rulechange came into effect the day before the match and was evidently problematic for the visiting English side. Nevertheless, Hunslet claimed that their players were wearing shinguards inside their socks. On questioning this the Yorkshire Union found that Hunslet had banned the players wearing shinguards outside their socks as one of their players was injured before when the buckle holding the shinguard on the sock was driven into a player's leg by a kick thus injuring him. In addition, the Yorkshire Union thought it heavy handed to complain directly to the national union when the complaint could have been made to the District Union in the first instance. As for the second point on the disallowed try Hunslet felt that the referee was not sympathetic in the way that Yorkshire teams played. Nevertheless, they had to provide representatives to the English national union so that the complaint was heard.

Such was his influence on the Scottish Rugby Union that Smith came in for ' a heap of abuse' in not protecting the Inverlieth pitch with straw prior to the 1899 Scotland versus Wales match.

He was President of the Scottish Rugby Union for the period 1926 to 1927.

After this Smith remained on the board of the Scottish Rugby Union as chairman of the executive committee.

Outside of rugby He was a Chartered Accountant.