Ken D. Smith (1916-1973) was born in Bristol and educated at Clifton College, Bristol. In 1938 he joined the British South African Police in Southern Rhodesia. He was seconded to the Military Administration for war service in Eritrea, serving with the British Expeditionary Force which liberated Ethiopia in 1941, and then to the Eritrean Police in 1942. He worked for the Desert Locust Survey, which was controlling the Desert Locust plague affecting much of Africa and South West Asia, from 1950 to 1955. He was warden of Skokholm Island, Wales, in 1960, and carried out field work for the British Trust for Ornithology in 1961. He spent 15 months in 1962-1964 camping in Morocco while carrying out field work.

An obituary of Smith was published in Ibis, 116:2, 235-236 (1974).