Mary Isabel Smith was the wife of Trafford Smith, whom she married in 1937 and with whom she travelled through the Western Pacific as well as Malta and Burma; they had two daughters.

Trafford Smith (1912-1975), civil servant and diplomat, began work in the Colonial Office in 1935 before being seconded to Fiji in 1938. He was made Assistant British Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides in 1940, served in the British Solomon Islands from the same year and in the Gilbert and Ellis Islands from 1941. He was Secretary of the Soulbury Commission on Constitutional Reform, Ceylon, 1944-1945 and Assistant Secretary, Colonial Office, 1945. He was attached to the British delegation to the United Nations, New York, for the Special General Assembly on Palestine, 1948. From 1953 to 1959 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, and Acting Governor May-September 1953 and July-September 1954. He was made Assistant Under-Secretary of State, Commonwealth Office, 1959-1967 and Ambassador to Burma, 1967-1970. He was awarded a CMG and the Cross of St. John.