Sydney Smith was born in Pickering, Yorkshire, England, the youngest in a family of 12. Trained as a joiner, his first camera was a homemade pinhole and there began a lifelong love of photography. Owning one of the first motorcars in Pickering, he was able to travel the countryside & record events over a period of 40 years. From having measles as a child he was partially blind and focused his cameras with the aid of a small magnifying glass carried in his waistcoat pocket. He married Maud Thompson in 1915 and together they created a photographic history of this rural area.