Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Smith, Archibald Levin
SMITH, Sir ARCHIBALD LEVIN (1836–1901), judge, born at Salt Hill near Chichester on 27 Aug. 1836, was only son of Francis Smith of that place, by his wife Mary Ami, only daughter of Zadik Levin. After attending Eton, and receiving private tuition at home and at Chichester, he completed his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1858. Like several of his contemporaries on the judicial bench, he rowed in the university eight in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race three years running (1857, 1858, 1859). On the last occasion the race was rowed in a gale of wind, and the Cambridge boat filled and sank between Barnes Bridge and the finish. According to tradition. Smith alone of the Cambridge oarsmen could not swim, and sat stolidly rowing until, when the water was up to his neck, he was rescued not without difficulty. Smith was also through life a good cricketer, playing frequently for the Gentlemen of Sussex. He had entered as a student of the Inner Temple on 27 May 1856, and was called on 17 Nov. 1860, when he joined the home circuit. He rapidly acquired a good and increasing junior practice, being largely employed in commercial cases and in election petitions, and having a full pupil-room. In 1879, on the appointment of Charles (afterwards Lord) Bowen [q. v. Suppl. I] to a judgeship, he was nominated by Sir John Holker [q. v.], attorney-general, to be standing junior counsel to the treasury, and after an unusually short tenure of that office he was made a judge of the Queen's Bench Division in 1883. He was elected a bencher of his inn on 12 April, and was knighted on 20 April of that year.
Smith, big and strong physically, was devoted to sport, and was in an exceptional degree 'a good fellow.' To these advantages he added cheerful and unremitting industry and great natural acuteness. Consequently it mattered very little that his voice was weak, or that he had no gift of eloquence, his language being to the end of his life confined to the homeliest vernacular. He was extremely fond of shooting and fishing; he was (in 1899) president of the M.C.C., and the university boatrace and cricket-match aroused his never-failing interest. He was, in the best sense of the words, a man of the world, and his honesty, vigour-, and good sense were everywhere recognised.
In 1888 Smith was appointed a special commissioner with Sir James Hannen [q. v.] and Mr. Justice Day to inquire into allegations published by 'The Times' affecting C. S. Parnell and other Irish nationalists. During the sitting of this tribunal the commissioners adopted a practice of silence. On one occasion, when the president, Hannen, who had a gift for saying much in the fewest words, observed that he had not thought or imputed something of which some of those appearing before the commission had complained. Smith said 'Nor I,' and Day made an inarticulate sound of concurrence; but it was believed that, with this exception, neither of the junior judges said a word during the prolonged proceedings. Smith tried, while he was in the Queen's Bench Division, the first case heard under the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, when a Colonel Sandoval was convicted of fitting out a hostile expedition against Venezuela, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
In 1892 Smith was promoted, with general approval, to the Court of Appeal, his original colleagues there being Esher, Master of the Rolls, Lindley, Bowen, Fry, and Kay. Esher had much in common with Smith; the others were all more learned lawyers. Smith's modesty, force of character, and great intelligence enabled him however to hold his own so effectively that he was appointed in October 1900 without any sign of dissatisfaction to succeed Lord Alverstone as Master of the Rolls. His health and strength soon began to fail. In August 1901 his wife, who had suffered from a long and distressing illness, was drowned in the Spey, near Aberlour, almost in his presence. Smith never recovered from the shock, and died at Wester-Elchies House, Aberlour, Morayshire, the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Grant, on 20 Oct. 1901, a few days after resigning the mastership of the rolls. He was buried at Knockando, Morayshire. Smith married in 1867 Isobel, daughter of John Charles Fletcher, and left two sons and three daughters.
Smith contributed to 'The Walkers of Southgate' (1900) a chapter entitled 'Reminiscences by an old friend.'
[Foster's Men at the Bar; The Times, 21 Oct. 1901; Haygarth's Cricket Scores and Biographies, viii. 319; Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack for 1902, p. lxx.]