Henry Smith (police officer)

{{short description|Scottish police officer (1835–1921)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Smith {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCB}} (15 December 1835 – 2 March 1921) was a Scottish police officer who was Commissioner of the City of London Police.'The London City Police, Belfast News-Letter, 29 July 1890, page 5.

Smith was born in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the son of Rev. George Smith of the Church of Scotland and Jane Hogarth.{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Burke, Sir Bernard |editor-link=Bernard Burke |edition=76th |year= 1914 |page= 2531 |ref=Burke }} He was educated at Edinburgh Academy. After serving as a constable in a Scottish county force, he went to London in 1879.{{cite news |title=Lieut.-Col. Sir Henry Smith, K.C.B. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19210305/336/0014 |access-date=26 May 2019 |work=Yorkshire Post |date=5 March 1921 |page=14}} He was unanimously elected to the post on 28 July 1890, the first to hold the post after joining the same force as a Constable.'Pithy Paragraphs of the Week', Larne Times, 21 January 1911, page 11 He had also been Acting Commissioner since the resignation of James Fraser.

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1896{{London Gazette|issue=26743|page=3123|date=26 May 1896}} and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1897.{{London Gazette|nolink=y|issue=26867|display-supp=y|page=3569|date=25 June 1897}} He tendered his resignation as Commissioner early in December 1902 due to friction with the Police Committee over the administration of the force'Condensed Intelligence', Reading Mercury, 7 December 1901, page 10 and left office late that month.'Jottings by Wire', Portsmouth Evening News, 2 December 1901, page 6.

He died in Edinburgh in 1921.Coventry Evening Telegraph, 4 March 1921, page 3.