Ted Smith

Arthur Edward Smith CBE was a British conservation pioneer and English teacher from Lincolnshire. He was primarily known for his work in founding the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, and in extending the Wildlife Trust movement across Britain to form what is now the Wildlife Trusts.

Early life Ted Smith came from a relatively poor background; his father Arthur was a plumber, and his parents ran a bakery and grocery shop. He spent much of his adult life working firstly as a teacher in Leeds and then Norfolk, and then as an adult education tutor in Lincolnshire.

Later in life he became chairman and then President of the Lincolnshire Trust, holding the latter position until his death in 2015; he also became the Chairman of the England Committee of the Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England) and first General Secretary of the Royal Society of Nature Conservation.

He received multiple awards for his work in nature conservation, including the CBE in 1998, having received the OBE in 1963. In 2012 he received a centenary award from the Wildlife Trusts, presented by his friend and colleague Sir David Attenborough. The Gibraltar Point nature reserve was dedicated to him in 2010.

Personal life Smith met Mary Goddard in 1948 on a trip to Skokholm, and married her in 1949. They have two surviving children; Professor Alison Smith, a prominent specialist in plant metabolism, and Dr Helen Smith, an arachnologist and president of the British Arachnological Society. He died on 13 September 2015.