1933–2018

Tom Harman Smith was the epitome of the high street family dentist whose practice is a little bit of everything. He readily admitted that he enjoyed the management and administration of oral health more than its scientific base. Long before leadership became a discipline in its own right, Tom was fascinated by the consensus process and the way health professionals prioritise decisions. This applied both to his own practice and networking with peers. His most notable achievements were editing and producing the Barnet LDC Newsletter with a national circulation to other LDCs, managing the BDA's Middx & Herts Branch and later becoming the British Dental Health Foundation(BDHF)'s secretary. Tom was also an incessant lobbyist for dentistry with the sometime MP for Finchley.

Tom was a fourth generation dentist. Born in Loughborough he went to Birmingham where he qualified in 1956. As a student he was involved in playing banjo in a New Orleans jazz group that toured. After qualifying he became an associate in a group practice in North Finchley where he immediately became an active member in both the BDA and the old Middlesex LDC. Tom crafted his journalistic skills in 1971 when he took his family to Ascension Island for a year where he founded the The Islander newspaper, which he also edited. On his return he became a principal in his own practice, still in North Finchley.

In the 1974 NHS reorganisation Tom was the only dentist with committee experience in the newly constituted Barnet LDC. As onetime chairman, secretary and editor of Barnet Contact Point, the LDC more or less became his personal fiefdom. Tom's big scoop at the time was publicising various Item 30 discretionary fees of the now defunct Statement of Dental Remuneration which failed to amuse the DPB. Tom also served on the BDA's Representative Board and was a founder member of the British Dental Editors Forum. From 1978–1982 the office of the BDHF, now the Oral Health Foundation, was in Tom's practice. In 1998 he became an Association Life Member.

Tom retired to the Isle of Wight in 1998, where he was able to indulge his passion for gardening. He first married Carol Kirk and then Elizabeth Elliot (BDHF Executive Director at the time). His late years were spent in sheltered housing.

Tom's life was not only directed to those he cared for but also to his colleagues.