Alan Smith

Smith joined First Division club Arsenal in May 1946 after being demobbed from the Army. He made his league debut, aged 24, on 7 September 1946 against Sunderland. He made only a further two appearances for "The Gunners" before, in December 1946, being transferred to another First Division club Brentford. Smith scored his first league goal on 26 December 1946 for Brentford in a 2–1 victory against Sheffield United and scored a total of three goals in ten league appearances for "The Bees" over the 1946–47 season – at the end of which the club were relegated. He did not play any further league matches for Brentford until the tail-end of the 1948–49 season, when he appeared in three Second Division matches, scoring one goal. In July 1949 Smith was part of a player exchange deal (with Reg Newton moving in the opposite direction) that took him to Leyton Orient of the Football League Third Division South. He played in six matches, scoring one goal for "The Os" in the 1949–50 season. During the summer of 1950 Smith moved to non-league football when he signed with Tonbridge of the Southern Football League, reuniting with his former Brentford manager Harry Curtis. He spent three seasons with Tonbridge, and had the misfortune to suffer a broken leg break during the 1951–52 season albeit he was fit for the start his final season, 1952–53, with "The Angels". Smith next signed with Ashford Town, who were managed by his former Brentford teammate David Nelson and played with the club for a…

Whilst in Canada, Smith worked for a time at a uranium mine, then on his return to the UK he worked as a painter and decorator and also for the London Electricity Board. Together with his wife he was a medal winning ballroom dancer. Smith died in East Sussex, England on 27 May 2019, aged 97.