Family History of the Children of Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens)

Catherine Elizabeth (Cassie) Smith

Catherine Elizabeth (Cassie) Smith was born on 06/08/1905. She attended the local Mount St Patrick Catholic School for her early schooling. For senior primary, and high school, Cassie attended St Mary's College, Lismore, a school which later combined with St Joseph's High School for Boys to form Trinity Catholic College.

Cassie Smith learnt singing in her school years, and she turned out to be a very good singer, performing in church, particularly at weddings, as well as in local stage performances. From the 1910s to the 1930s, she was a frequent entrant in the singing competitions taking place at the annual Lismore Irish Music Festival, and appeared in many operettas and similar productions in the Murwillumbah School of Arts. She also conducted school and church choirs in Murwillumbah.

Cassie was the eldest of her siblings, and was also the eldest of her many first cousins that grew up in Murwillumbah along with the Smith children. These include the children of the Andersons, Whites, Walshes, and Stevenses; and, later, the Solbergs and Gills. Naturally, the cousins would have spent time together as children. Opposite is a photo from c.1918 of Cassie (left) with some of her younger sisters and cousins. Patsy Anderson on the right is the youngest one there.

In late 1932, Cassie and her aunty Henrietta Anderson (nee Gill) opened a dressmaking shop in the Dr Pritchard building in South Murwillumbah. We do not know what became of this store: in particular, whether Cassie retained it after Henrietta's passing in 1935.

In early 1938, Cassie, along with her mother and some of her siblings, left her home at 8 Byangum Road to live at 1 Lambton Street, Annerley, in Brisbane. She and her mother moved twice more within Brisbane's southern suburbs over the next several years: to River Terrace, West End, then to 299 Vulture Street, South Brisbane. Cassie remained in Brisbane until about 1947. During that time, she obtained work there as a telephonist with the US Army.

From about 1947 onward, Cassie lived at 8 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah, a home she shared with her mother, her sister Marie, and her aunty Tottie Smith. Cassie's aunt Elizabeth Collier also lived there during the 1950s.

Cassie Smith was quite a community-minded person. In the late 1940s, she was part of the auxiliary for the local Tweed District Hospital, working to raise funds for it. She had previously often helped organise fund-raising events - annual balls, for instance - in aid of the local Catholic school, Mount St Patrick's.

In the late 1970s, the Smith family demolished their house at 8 Byangum Road and replaced it with a block of five units. Cassie and Marie Smith lived together in one of these units, and their widowed sister-in-law Doreen Smith (wife of Francis Patrick Smith Junior) lived in one of the other units. Doreen's daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Malcolm MacLennan, resided in a unit there, as well.

Cassie Smith died on 23/07/1990 at the age of 84. She was buried in the Murwillumbah Lawn Cemetery. Cassie is pictured opposite in her later years.

Esme Mary Smith

Esme Mary Smith was born on 19/08/1906. Like her older sister, Cassie, Esme attended Mount St Patrick's School in Murwillumbah, though we do not know if she studied at St Mary's, Lismore, for her senior years. Esme sometimes went by the nickname Eppie.

Although not to the extent of Cassie, Esme was also quite musical, studying piano, entering singing competitions, and performing in local Murwillumbah musical productions.

In October 1924, Esme moved from Murwillumbah to Sydney to begin nursing at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. She completed her training there, and then returned home to Murwillumbah in September 1928. There is conflicting information, however, about whether Esme finished her training at St Vincent's in Sydney, or St Vincent's in Toowoomba!

Esme Smith married Reginald William Davis on 06/01/1929 at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Tweed Heads. Together, Esme and Reginald had two children: Valerie Anne and John, though we have no birth dates for them.

Reginald Davis worked as a clerk throughout his working life. Up until his marriage, he lived in the Brisbane inner suburb of New Farm with his parents, but after their wedding, he and Esme lived in White Street, Graceville. Soon after, however, around 1930, they moved to Turner Avenue, New Farm.

The Davises moved two more times within Brisbane in quick succession: to Annerley Road, Annerley, around 1932, and then to Waterlot Street, Clifton Hill, around 1935.

Esme's mother, Mary Ann Smith, and some of her siblings, too, moved from Murwillumbah to Brisbane's southern suburbs in the late 1930s, no doubt bringing welcome company and support for Esme, who had two small children by that time.

In April 1942, Reginald enlisted in the army for WWII, and, within months, Esme and her children moved from Waterlot Street to "Charlton Villa", 299 Vulture Street, South Brisbane, where her Smith family were also living. We think that Charlton Villa, which no longer exists, was quite a large building, somehow subdivided into separate residences.

Mary Ann Smith left Charlton Villa to return to Murwillumbah around 1947, and Esme and Reginald also moved houses - a few years earlier - to 49 Ferndale Street, Annerley. However, in the early 1950s, they moved once more, to 17 Atthow Avenue, Ashgrove, in Brisbane's north-western suburbs. Here, they finally settled and they lived there for many decades.

Reginald Davis died on 15/09/1986. Esme continued living at 17 Atthow Avenue until around 1999, when she moved to the Holy Spirit Home at 736 Beams Road, Carseldine. Esme Mary Davis (nee Smith) died on 22/11/2005. She was buried in Mount Gravatt Cemetery and Crematorium. Her funeral notice appeared in the Brisbane Courier Mail.

Francis Patrick (Pat) Smith (Jnr)

Francis Patrick (Pat) Smith (Jnr) was born on 26/02/1908. Part of Pat's schooling was at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, in Sydney. Leaving school and returning home to Murwillumbah, Pat did not take long to follow in his father's auctioneering footsteps. Reportedly, Pat Smith was, at the time, the youngest on the NSW North Coast to get his auctioneer's license. He had become a licensed auctioneer in 1929 at the age of 21, working under his father's tutelage.

Pat must have had an aptitude and a liking for the business, because just two years later, in November 1931, the ownership of P. Smith and Son was handed from Pat's father, Francis Patrick Smith, to Pat in partnership with Frederick Ernest Nicholl, a well-respected bank manager in Murwillumbah.

Pat Smith married Doreen Mary Hodge, a Murwillumbah local, on 18/03/1933. Pat and Doreen Smith had four children (two boys and two girls):

• (Patricia) Ann, born 09/10/1933
• Margaret, born 27/06/1936
• (Francis) Peter, born 1942
• Henry William Joseph (Harry)

Through the early 1930s, Pat and Doreen Smith were living in Byangum Road - we think at Number 8. Then, in February 1935, Doreen purchased a riverfront property at 27 Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah She and Pat moved there from Byangum Road sometime between 1935 and 1939, and they lived there for about 30 years.

Pat's business partner Frederick Nicholl died in 1944, at which point Pat Smith became sole owner of P. Smith and Son.

Aside from running the family auctioneering business in Murwillumbah, Pat Smith took a strong interest in local horseracing. He owned racehorses and was, for a time, secretary of the Tweed Valley Jockey Club, located at the Murwillumbah racecourse in Tygalgah.

Pat Smith died on 05/06/1968 at the age of 60. He was buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. His tombstone is pictured opposite.

After her husband's death, Doreen Smith sold their Tumbulgum Road home and bought another house at 9 Thompson Street, Murwillumbah. She stayed there until selling it in December 1974.

Soon after this, the Smith family replaced their old family home at 8 Byangum Road with a block of five units, and then, while her sisters-in-law Cassie and Marie Smith shared one of these units, Doreen lived in one of the other units. Additionally, Doreen's daughter Margaret lived with her husband, Malcolm Allen MacLennan, in another of these units at that time. Margaret and Malcolm had, in fact, become owners of the property, purchasing the old house in 1973.

Doreen lived at 8 Byangum Road until about 1996, when she moved into the Murwillumbah Nursing Home in Ingram Place, Murwillumbah. Margaret and Malcolm MacLennan stayed at 8 Byangum Road for about one more year, leaving around 1997 to live in Bogangar. It appears that they were the last of the Smiths to live at 8 Byangum Road, a property the family had held for many, many decades. We do not know if these units are still in Smith possession.

Doreen Smith died on 10/04/2000, and she was buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. Her tombstone is shown opposite.

We have the title deed for 8 Byangum Road, applicable up to the time it became a strata property in 1976. It shows the changing ownership over the years between various members of the Smith family.

Additionally, we have the title deed for the adjoining property, 10 Byangum Road. The Smiths owned this also for a long time from 1920 onwards, excluding a 21-year period (1935 - 1956) when it was owned by Mary Ann Smith's sister Elizabeth Collier.

(Francis) Peter Smith took over the P. Smith and Son auctioneering business after his father's passing in 1968. Peter had previously been a banker in Murwillumbah, so there was much for him to learn in his new role. However, the business prospered under his management. Eventually, in the 1990s, Peter Smith passed the firm onto his daughter Kathryn Smith, who ran it with her husband, Paul Leslight, until 2019. Unfortunately, the P. Smith and Son business is no longer in Smith hands.

Edna Ann Smith

Edna Ann Smith was born on 17/08/1909. Edna attended Mount St Patrick's in Murwillumbah for her early schooling, then went to St Mary's, Lismore, for her senior years.

Edna Smith joined the Sisters of Mercy in Brisbane in December 1928, becoming Sister Mary Consolata. Her reception ceremony was held at the All Hallows School in Fortitude Valley. Opposite, Sister Mary Consolata is pictured some years later wearing her habit.

As a sister, Edna became a nurse and worked for many years in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, which was founded in South Brisbane by the Sisters of Mercy.

We know from electoral records that Edna was working at the Mater in 1931, though she was possibly there in the preceding two years also. Around 1935 she moved to the St Vincent's Home for Children, an orphanage in Queens Road, Nudgee, run by the Sisters of Mercy. Here is a brief history of this orphanage.

Just a few years later, around 1938, Edna returned to the Mater Hospital in South Brisbane, where she worked for a further 20-plus years. This move back to South Brisbane coincided with the move, also in 1938, of Edna's mother, Mary Ann Smith, to South Brisbane. In fact, quite a few of Mary Ann's children were living in that area from 1938 onwards for a number of years.

Two of Edna's younger sisters, Phyllis and Marie Smith also worked at the Mater Hospital while Edna was there, both as lay nurses: Phyllis in the 1930s and early 1940s, and Marie in the early 1940s. However, Edna was not the first in her extended Cregan family to nurse at the Mater, or to join the Sisters of Mercy. Edna's mother's first cousin Agnes Elizabeth O'Rourke (born 1894) joined the Sisters of Mercy in Brisbane in the mid-1910s, as Sister Mary Denise, and began at the Mater Hospital around 1920. The family generally kept good contact over the years, so Edna, when she began with the Sisters, would have known of her cousin's presence.

Edna Ann Smith, Sister Mary Consolata, aged 50, died on 27/02/1960 at the Mater Private Hospital. She was buried at the Nudgee Cemetery. Buried with Edna is another of her relatives, Sister Norah Ellen Boland, who, as a granddaughter of Bridget Boland (nee Cregan), was Edna's second cousin. Norah had joined the Sisters of Mercy and worked at the Mater Hospital in South Brisbane while Edna was nursing there.

Phyllis Grace Smith

Phyllis Grace Smith was born on 07/04/1911. As did her sisters, Phyllis attended Mount St Patrick's School in Murwillumbah, then St Mary's College, Lismore.

Phyllis Smith worked for many years as a nurse. She began her career in June 1932 at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in South Brisbane. Her sister Edna Smith was already nursing at the Mater at this time and no doubt provided support and a friendly face for Phyllis.

Phyllis resided in the nurses' quarters in her initial years at the Mater Hospital but, from about 1938 onwards, took to living with her mother, Mary Ann Smith, and sister Cassie, when they moved from Murwillumbah to the southern Brisbane suburbs.

In April 1942, Phyllis was called up to join the Australian Army Nursing Service. Her subsequent movements in the mid-1940s are unclear, however. Electoral rolls from 1940 to 1943 show Phyllis to be living at her mother's (Mary Ann's) home in River Terrace, West End, though Mary Ann had left there around 1942. In May 1948, Phyllis was reported to be nursing at the Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney.

Phyllis Smith married Harry Robert Hall at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah on 13/12/1952. Phyllis was then 41 years old, and we do not think that she and Harry had any children.

Harry worked as an electrician, and Phyllis gave up her nursing career after marriage. They bought a house at 33 Fisher Avenue, Ryde, in 1952, around the time of their marriage, and they lived there for the rest of their lives together.

Phyllis Hall (nee Smith) died on 08/07/1983 at the age of 72. She was buried in the Murwillumbah Lawn Cemetery. Phyllis's death notice says that she died in Murwillumbah Hospital. Her tombstone is pictured opposite.

Harry Hall died seven years later on 22/12/1990. According to his death notice, Harry continued living in Ryde after Phyllis's death.

Joyce Magdalene Smith

Joyce Smith was born on 14/01/1913. Joyce attended Mount St Patrick's School in Murwillumbah. Later, in 1928, she was boarding at St Ursula's Convent School, Armidale. Joyce had the unusual nickname of "Toit".

Joyce Smith married (James Samuel) Gordon Murphy at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah on 10/02/1938. Up until her marriage, Joyce was working in Glynn's department store in Murwillumbah as a shop assistant. Gordon Murphy was a publican living at Parkes, NSW, at that time, although a few years earlier he and his parents lived in Murwillumbah, his father, James Sylvester Murphy, running the Imperial Hotel in Main Street from October 1932 to September 1935.

After their marriage, Joyce and Gordon Murphy lived in Parkes. There, Gordon's father was licensee of the Cambridge Hotel, though we think that Gordon might have had a financial stake in the business also.

The Murphys sold the Cambridge Hotel license in March 1939. They then moved to the Sydney suburb of Balmain, where, in June of that same year, Gordon became licensee of the Riverview Hotel at 29 Birchgrove Road. Gordon's parents, James and Ada Murphy, moved with them to Balmain, with James working as a barman at the hotel. In 1943, Gordon's sister Joan Agnes Murphy was also living at the Riverview Hotel with Joyce and Gordon and working as a nurse.

In June 1942, Gordon joined the RAAF for WWII. We have his enlistment photo.

Joyce and Gordon ran the Riverview Hotel for twelve years, finally selling the business in July 1951 to a Rita Mavis Logan. After leaving Balmain, Joyce and Gordon moved to Lane Cove, where Gordon became a shopkeeper. They bought a house at 43 Yallambee Road, Lane Cove, in 1953. In Lane Cove, Joyce was living quite close to her sister Phyllis Hall (nee Smith) and her husband Harry, who had bought their home in Ryde just a year earlier, in 1952.

Joyce and Gordon Murphy had the Yallambee Road house for about 21 years before selling it in 1974. Electoral rolls suggest, however, that from the late 1960s Gordon was living at 10 Stapylton Street, Coolangatta, working as a TV serviceman, while Joyce remained at Yallambee Street. In fact, Gordon had a business Tweed Television at 44 Bay Street, Tweed Heads. Upon their selling that Lane Cove property, Joyce also moved up to the Gold Coast, and she and Gordon then lived in a house at 10 Blamey Drive, Tugun. From the early 1980s onwards, they had Gordon's brother, Leo Sylvester Murphy, a retired Catholic priest, living with them at Tugun.

Gordon Murphy died on 07/09/1989. He was buried in Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery. Joyce Murphy died just six months later, on 10/03/1990, and she was buried alongside Gordon. Their tombstone appears opposite. We also have the death notices for both Gordon and Joyce. We do not think that Joyce and Gordon had any children.

Robert Stevens (Bob) Smith

Bob Smith was born on 09/03/1915. Bob attended school at Mount St Patrick's Convent in Murwillumbah. In his later school years, he attended Nudgee College in Queensland. Much of the information we have about Bob comes from an article about him in the publication Tales of Yesteryear, Volume 5, 28/02/1985, written by Peter Winter, a local historian.

In his early working years, Bob Smith worked under his father's management in their auctioneering firm, P. Smith and Son, in Murwillumbah. Bob continued to work there when the business came to be run by his older brother Francis Patrick Smith Jnr during the 1930s. Through these years, Bob was living with his mother, Mary Ann Smith, at 8 Byangum Road.

Those circumstances did not change for Bob in February 1938, when Mary Ann and four of Bob's younger siblings moved from Murwillumbah to Annerley in Brisbane. We think that Bob might have been the one person remaining at Number 8 then.

Not long afterwards, when WWII came, Bob enlisted in the army. He is pictured opposite in uniform.

Bob Smith married Jean Mary Wardrop on 24/01/1942. Jean was originally from Murwillumbah and the Wardrops were one of the pioneering families in that town. Bob and Jean Smith had five children (three boys and two girls):

• Jan Maree, born 27/01/1943
• Robert Gordon (Bob Junior), born 08/01/1945
• Paul Anthony
• Marie
• Anthony Stevens (Tony)

We think that, initially, Bob and Jean Smith lived at 8 Byangum Road. However, around 1947, Mary Ann Smith returned from Brisbane to live in that house with her daughter Cassie. Bob and Jean, we think, were bumped across the fence to live in the small cottage next door at 10 Byangum Road, which the Smiths also owned.

In June 1947, Bob, still working with P. Smith and Son, applied, unsuccessfully, for a spirit merchant's license to operate next to the Imperial Hotel in Main Street, Murwillumbah.

Bob and Jean lived at 10 Byangum Road until about 1951. They then moved to Marine Parade, Kingscliff, and Bob bought a real estate firm in nearby Tweed Heads. Not long afterwards, Bob moved this business to Maranga House in Bay Street, Tweed Heads. Maranga House was the building previously called Gill's Building, owned by Henry and Catherine Gill from 1920 onwards.

Bob Smith joined the Tweed Heads Urban Committee in 1951 and, in December 1954, was elected as its chairman. The abovementioned article from Tales of Yesteryear details much of the good civic work done in Tweed Heads by Bob while a member of that committee.

In 1954, Bob and Jean bought a house at 3 Pearl Street, Tweed Heads, and they moved there from Kingscliff. Bob was then much closer to his real estate and auctioneering office.

Bob's brother John Stevens Smith began working in Bob's real estate and auctioneering business around 1958. They expanded it, opening an office at Kirra and another at 54 Griffith Street, Coolangatta. Eventually, in 1974, Bob handed the Coolangatta office over to John's ownership.

Bob and Jean's son Bob Smith Junior also joined the firm, in time taking over the original Bay Street office in 1980. Bob and Jean continued living at their 3 Pearl Street house until at least 1992.

Robert Stevens (Bob) Smith died on 08/06/1996 at the age of 81. He was buried in Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery. Bob's death notice appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. Jean Smith died on 26/01/2002. She was buried alongside Bob at Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery. Their tombstone is pictured opposite. Jean's death notice appeared in the Courier Mail.

Henry William Joseph (Harry) Smith

Harry Smith was born on 04/03/1917. We have no information on Harry's schooling but he probably attended the local Mount St Patrick's as his siblings did. Harry worked as a publican in the Royal Hotel in South Murwillumbah during the time his parents ran it, from 1932 to 1935.

Harry Smith moved with his mother, Mary Ann Smith, and some of his siblings to 1 Lambton Street, Annerley, in Brisbane in 1938. There he worked as a salesman. With the onset of WWII, Harry joined the RAAF. He is pictured opposite in uniform.

Harry flew in bombers over Germany and Italy during the war. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) in 1942 for his service. Harry died on one of his bombing raids over Germany on 18/12/1942. A tribute to Harry from his squadron leader was aired over BBC radio and was transcribed in the Tweed Daily. Further information is available on the Australian War Memorial web site.

Peter Cregan (Creg) Smith

Creg Smith was born on 18/06/1918. Creg attended the Mount St Patrick's Convent School in Murwillumbah.

Creg Smith was aged 19 when his mother, Mary Ann Smith, moved to Brisbane in 1938. Though still relatively young, Creg remained in Murwillumbah rather than join a number of his brothers and sisters. Creg Smith was quite a good football player and was playing for the Kangaroos team in the local rugby league competition that year. Creg also represented the Tweed district in league during that season and also in the previous season.

Creg was also involved in surf life saving around that time. In March 1938, he won a competition, and was awarded the Hemming Cup, at the Fingal-Rovers Surf Life Saving Club. So Creg was something of an all-round sportsman.

For the following two years, 1939 and 1940, Creg played league for the Old Boys football club in Murwillumbah.

Creg Smith joined the RAAF to serve in WWII, enlisting in Sydney in August 1941. Opposite is Creg's enlistment photo. Two years later he married Beryl Beatrice Holland on 22/05/1943 in Waverley, Sydney. Creg and Beryl Smith had three children (one boy and two girls):

• Peter John, born on 21/12/1944
• Susanne Narelle
• Ann Marie Margaret

Creg Smith worked in various parts of the east coast as an electrician throughout his working life. Electoral rolls from 1940 to 1947 show him living in Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah. He was possibly living with his brother Francis Patrick Smith Jnr and his wife Doreen at Number 27. However, after his marriage, Creg and his wife, Beryl, lived in Sydney for a short time: from 1948 to 1950, they were living at 68 Plowman Street, Bondi. Later, in 1953 and 1954, they were living at 6 Hicks Road, Russell Vale, in the northern suburbs of Wollongong.

Creg and Beryl Smith continued to move around: in 1958, they were living in Marine Parade, Kingscliff. In the early 1960s they were living further north, at 40 Fisher Street, Gladstone. But in 1963 they returned to the Tweed coast, buying a house at 1 Angela Street, Tweed Heads. Creg and Beryl settled in Angela Street for some years, and here, they were near neighbours of Creg's brother Bob Smith and also Creg's uncle Peter John Gill.

It seems, however, that Creg and Beryl separated in about 1972. While Creg continued living at their Angela Street home until selling it in 1978, Beryl moved to 6/79 Tweed Street, Tweed Heads, and began working as a shop assistant. Beryl moved to Tugun, on the Gold Coast, around 1979. Through most of the 1980s, Creg lived in the Border Caravan Park. This caravan park no longer exists. It was located where the Twin Towns Public Park is now, in the heart of Tweed Heads.

Peter Cregan (Creg) Smith died on 09/05/1989. He was buried in the Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery. His tombstone is shown opposite.

Beryl Smith re-married to a Jack Searle, though we do not know when this occurred. Beryl Searle (previously Smith, nee Holland) died on 29/08/2010. Her death notice gives some information on her family.

Marie Joan Therese Smith

Marie Smith was born on 01/12/1919.

Marie moved with her mother, Mary Ann Smith, and eldest sister, Cassie, from their Murwillumbah house at 8 Byangum Road to 1 Lambton Street, Annerley in February 1938. Marie then was 18 years old.

Soon after, Marie Smith began nursing at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in South Brisbane. She was living at that hospital in 1941. As a trained nurse in 1943, Marie was able to move out of the nurses' quarters and live at Charlton Villa, 299 Vulture Street, South Brisbane, with Mary Ann and Cassie again. At the Mater, Marie had her sisters Edna (Sister Mary Consolata) and Phyllis also nursing in those years. Marie is pictured opposite in nursing uniform.

Marie was a nurse throughout her working life. Around 1946, she left the Mater and moved to Ayr in North Queensland to work at the Delta Private Hospital. Marie returned from Ayr to 8 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah, in about 1951. She then worked at the local Tweed District Hospital for the rest of her nursing career, finally retiring in 1984. Upon her leaving, one of the wards at the Tweed District Hospital was renamed the Marie Smith Ward in her honour.

In the late 1970s, only Cassie and Marie were living in the old family home at 8 Byangum Road. The Smiths decided to demolish the home and replace it with a block of five units. After these were built, Marie lived in one of the units with Cassie. Their sister-in-law Doreen Smith lived in one of the other units, as did Doreen's daughter Margaret MacLennan and her husband Malcolm.

Marie Smith died on 13/09/1994. The local Daily News published an obituary, giving some details of her nursing career. Marie was buried beside her sister Cassie Smith at the Murwillumbah Lawn Cemetery. Their tombstone is shown opposite. It seems appropriate that the sisters are buried together: except for a handful of years, the two girls lived their whole lives together, and neither one ever married.

John Stevens Smith

John Smith, the youngest of the children of Francis Patrick and Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens), was born on 14/03/1921. His early schooling was done at Mount St Patrick's in Murwillumbah. Later, he attended St John's College, Woodlawn, near Lismore, in the mid-1930s.

After leaving school, John worked in the family auctioneering firm, P. Smith and Son, joining his brothers Francis Patrick Jnr and Bob Smith.

In February 1938, John moved to 1 Lambton Street, Annerley, with his mother, Mary Ann Smith, and several of John's siblings. John found work there with the Jennings Rubber Company in Fortitude Valley as a vulcanizer (i.e. he was working with vehicle tyres).

John Smith enlisted in the army in July 1940 to fight in WWII. However, in March the following year, he was discharged and transferred to the RAAF. Opposite is a picture of John in RAAF uniform. Below that is his enlistment photo. John had previously joined the Australian Militia Forces (now known as the Army Reserve) in August 1939.

John was discharged from the RAAF in April 1946 while he was in Vanuatu in the Pacific. He subsequently found work there and in other Pacific islands. John Smith married Ivy Jean Lloyd in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in February 1948. Ivy had the nickname "Dutch" or "Dutchie". She was born in South Australia in 1917 and was a trained nurse. She was working in the local hospital when John was in Vanuatu. John and Ivy had two children (one boy and one girl), both born in Vanuatu:

• Vaughn Kowald Stevens, born 1951
• Prudence Mary, born 1953

Around 1958, John and Ivy returned to Australia. They lived in Pearl Street, Tweed Heads, for a short period, but soon moved to Tugun, on the Gold Coast. John joined his brother Bob Smith's real estate and auctioneering business in Tweed Heads. Bob and John expanded their business over the years, and John came to run an office at 54 Griffith Street, Coolangatta, under the name John S Smith and Associates.

John and Ivy moved to a house at 1 Charles Street, Tweed Heads, in 1963. This was actually a land grant won by John and Ivy for the price of £1450, so presumably they had a house built on that lot. In the late 1970s, John started a firm called Queensland Hotel Brokers and purchased the Stanthorpe Hotel in Stanthorpe. While John maintained his home in Charles Street, his son Vaughn, with his wife Leanne, moved up to Stanthorpe for a couple of years working at the hotel.

Ivy Smith died on 22/06/1979 in Murwillumbah Hospital. She was buried in the Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery.

From about 1981 on, John Smith lived with June Marjorie Smith (maiden name unknown). Apparently, they were married, but we have no information confirming it. John and June lived at 1 Charles Street until 1988, when they moved to nearby 7 Oakland Parade, Banora Point.

John Stevens Smith died on 30/06/2005 at the age of 84 in the John Flynn Hospital, Tugun. He was buried alongside Ivy. Their shared tombstone is shown opposite.

Some of the information given here on John Smith comes from four pieces about him: (i) Obituary from the local Daily News, 10/08/2005; (ii) Article from Tales of Yesteryear, Volume 2, p. 17; (iii) Eulogy to John delivered by his nephew Francis Peter Smith; (iv) Article that John appears to have submitted to the Tweed Heads Historical Society.