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He is the founder of The Boys' Brigade - the first youth uniformed organisation for Boys which was to spread around the world, and also the world first voluntary uniformed youth organisation. The first BB company, the 1st Glasgow, was formed on Thursday, October 4, 1883. Today, the organisation had grown into a world wide movement in over 60 countries. William Smith was an officer of the 1st Lanark Rifle Volunteers during his time. He was enlisted in 1874 and was quickly promoted to lance corporal and then to sergeant in 1876. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1877 and a full lieutenant in April 1881. William Smith reached the rank of lieutenant colonel before his retrial in 1908, and thereafter, until his death, he was accorded the rank of honorary colonel. William Smith was knighted in July 1909 by King Edward VII, in recognition of his work for the Boys' Brigade, and the nation’s youth.
In May 1914, Sir William Smith traveled to London for the Annual Demonstration in the Albert Hall on May 7, 1914, and attended a meeting of the Brigade Executive in the London Office. There he was taken ill and admitted to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and died on May 10, 1914, in his sixtieth year. When the Founder's body sped through Rugby on the overnight London-Glasgow train, a detachment of the 2nd Rugby Company, who had waited long hours through the night, sounded the "Last Post" to bid farewell to him. During the funeral procession in Glasgow, an estimated 164,000 people lined the street.
On October 16, 1943, when the Brigade celebrated its Diamond Jubilee, King George VI, the reigning monarch, conduct an inspection of the Brigade in person. Below is an extract of the King's address on that day: "When the Boys' Brigade was founded sixty years ago, your Founder, Sir William A. Smith, builded better than he knew, for he started not only a great movement, but one from which all our present widespread youth training was destined to spring...... I feel sure that the B.B. will go from strength to strength because it is built upon the twin pillars of religion and discipline, and so is meeting two of the greatest needs of the present time. Good luck to you and all your comrades. May all of you Boys live to see the centenary of this great movement." 
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Sir William Smith once said : If I am to be remembered by posterity, I should like it to be as the man who taught people to spell Boy with a capital 'B'.Till today, in the Brigade, we always spell the word Boy with a capital "B".
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