Sir James Carmichael Smyth, 1st Baronet

This article concerns the colonial administrator. For his father, the Scottish physician, see James Carmichael Smyth (physician)

Sir James Carmichael Smyth, 1st Baronet KCH CB (22 February 1779 – 4 March 1838) was a British colonial administrator.

He was born in London, England, the eldest of five sons of James Carmichael Smyth and Mary Holyland. He attended Charterhouse School, and his father later sent him to be educated at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, where he graduated in 1793.

Two years later, he became a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, and for over ten years served as one of the chief engineering officers with the British forces in southern Africa. He was in Spain with Sir John Moore's command, and was one of the principal military engineers with the allied troops in the Low Countries. At Waterloo he was on the Duke of Wellington's staff.

When Wellington took up the post of Master-General of the Ordnance in 1819, Smyth became one of his principal executive officers. In 1823 Wellington sent Smyth on tours of the defences and fortifications in the Low Countries and the British West Indies. In 1825 Smyth performed the same service in British North America.

In May 1829 he became Governor of the Bahamas. In June 1833 he moved to the governorship of British Guiana, where he helped to smooth out the problems associated with emancipation of the slaves, winning praise in the colony and London for his efforts. He died in this last office of a sudden illness in 1838. Between 1815 and 1831 Smyth had published eight volumes on military engineering, defence, and slavery.

References

• Saunders, D. Gail (1986). "Personalities: Sir James Carmichael Smyth, 1779–1838". Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society Vol. 8, No. 1. p. 22. http://www.bahamasnationalarchives.bs/Bahamian_Educators/Bahamian_Educators_JamesCarmichaelSmyth.htm. 
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online