Robert Smith (surgeon)  Robert Smith FRCSE (1840–1885), also known as Bob Smith, was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor who served as Assistant Colonial Surgeon of Sierra Leone during the late nineteenth century. Smith was the first African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh after completing his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh. Smith was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, then a British colony, to William Smith Jr., (1816–1896) and Charlotte Smith (née Macaulay). William Smith was born in Cape Coast to Esi, a Fante princess and William Smith Sr., a Yorkshireman who served as judge of the Mixed Commissary Court in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Charlotte Macaulay was a Liberated African and the daughter of Kenneth Macaulay, a second cousin of Zachary Macaulay and uncle of Lord Macaulay. Robert Smith was the second son of seven children born to William Smith from his first marriage to Charlotte Macaulay. Robert Smith briefly attended the Church Missionary Society Grammar School in Freetown, but in 1855 he entered the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield in Yorkshire, England. After completing his secondary education, he entered the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, completing his studies in 1865 with a double qualification in medicine and surgery, and becoming registered 12 May 1866. He became the first West African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons on 18 October 1871. After completing his medical degree, Smith returned to Sierra Leone and served as deputy inspector of the Health and Shipping Department. Smith was a popular doctor in Freetown and highly sought after by the ageing Settler and Maroon community in the Settler Town and Maroon Town area. Smith's warmth and skills as doctor led to promotion and he was eventually appointed Assistant Colonial Surgeon. Smith also lectured in anatomy and physiology at Fourah Bay College from 1879 to 1884, and taught a number of future Sierra Leonean medical doctors including John Farrell Easmon. In 1881 he became a non-resident fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute. On 21 July 1865, Smith married Annie Mary Pine, the daughter of Governor Benjamin Chilley Campbell Pine. The couple lived at Smith's family house at Charlotte Street and had at least three children, Chilley Smith, Charlotte A. Smith, and Florence Mary Smith (1869–1883). Smith was the brother of Francis Smith, (1847–1912), the second Sierra Leonean to qualify as a barrister at the Middle Temple.