Smith's first connection with public business seems to have been in 1855, when he was elected a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works. But before this date he had entered upon undertakings quite disconnected with his professional work in the Strand, and, among other duties, he performed those of a member of the managing committee of King's College Hospital from 1849 onwards. Except his autumn holidays, which were generally spent abroad, he allowed nothing to interfere with the routine of attendance in the Strand, and was always ready to devote such intervals of leisure as it afforded to useful or philanthropic schemes. His duties in connection with King's College Hospital brought him acquainted with Mr Robert Cheere, one of those most in the management of that institution, and it was that gentleman who introduced him to the family of Mr Danvers, who had been clerk to the council of the Duchy of Lancaster since the days of George IV. Mr Danvers had several daughters. Smith was received on friendly terms by the Danvers family; and a friend of his, Mr Auber Leach, who held an appointment in the old India House, used also to visit them in Lancaster Place, and, becoming engaged to Miss Emily Danvers, married her in 1854. Miss Emily Danvers and her younger sister were married on the same day in the Chapel of the Savoy. But the wedded life of the elder sister was tragically short, for Mr Leach died in January 1855. The young widow then returned to live with her parents m Lancaster Place, where her baby, a girl, was born.