Maynard Smith, John, 1920-2004

Born London, England, 6 January 1920; died Lewes, East Sussex, England, 19 April 2004. Educated Trinity College, Cambridge (Mechanical Sciences Tripos, 1938-1941) and University College London (Zoology, c 1947-1950). Engineer, Miles Aircraft (1942-1947). Lecturer, then Reader in Zoology, University College London (1951-1964). Professor of Biology and founding Dean of the School of Biological Sciences (1965-1972, 1982-1984), University of Sussex. Emeritus Professor (1985-2004). Fellow of the Royal Society (1977) Balzan Prize (1991), Linnean Medal (1995), Crafoord Prize (1999), Kyoto Prize (2001). Darwin (1986), Royal (1997) and Copley (1999) medals of the Royal Society.

John Maynard Smith was born in London, England on 6 January 1920, second son of a surgeon, Sidney Mason Smith and Isobel Mary (née Pitman). When Sidney died in 1928, the family moved to Hurst in Berkshire, and Maynard Smith spent holidays from boarding school at his maternal grandfather’s house in Exford, Devon, where he developed an interest in natural history. He was educated first at a preparatory school (St Peter’s Broadstairs) then Eton, where he reported being unhappy until the age of 16. In his later years there, Maynard Smith read the work of old Etonian and population geneticist John Burdon Sanderson Haldane and became interested in Darwinism, mathematics and communism.

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