He was born in Whatlington, Sussex, the extramarital child of Anne Longden, a milliner from Alfreton, and the Whig politician Benjamin Smith, the only son of William Smith, a Radical abolitionist. On a visit to his sister in Derbyshire in 1826, Benjamin senior met Anne Longden. She became pregnant by him and he took her to a rented lodge at Whatlington, a small village near Battle, East Sussex. There she lived as "Mrs Leigh", the surname of his relations on the nearby Isle of Wight. The birth of their first child, Barbara Leigh Smith, created a scandal because the couple did not marry, and within eight weeks Anne was pregnant again. When their son Benjamin was born, the four of them went to America for two years, during which time another child was conceived. After their return to Sussex, they lived openly together at Brown's and had two more children. Subsequently Anne became ill with tuberculosis and died in Ryde, Isle of Wight, in 1834. Ben was only five years old.
Explorations
Between 1871 and 1882, Leigh Smith undertook five major scientific expeditions to Svalbard and Franz Josef Land. He brought back specimens for the British Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as live polar bears for the London Zoo. By his fourth expedition, Leigh Smith's enthusiasm for Arctic exploration had advanced to the point that he had his own vessel—Eira—specially built.
''Eira''
Eira was built at the Scottish shipyard of Stephen & Forbes at Peterhead as a three-masted, steam-equipped screw barquentine from 1879 to 1880. John and David Gray pioneered steam engine ships and the Eira was designed along the lines of the whalerHope and Windward. At long and 360 tons the Eira was seven feet longer and forty tons heavier that the Windward—built in 1866 with a 30 hp steam engine—but an otherwise close copy. The ships hull was three feet thick and the bow had a thickness of eight feet. After launching the Eira was towed to Aberdeen where a 50 hp steam engine was installed. On 19 June 1880, the ship left Aberdeen with Captain William Lofley, captain of the Hull, as ice master, two mates, two engineers, and 17 men. On 20 June, four Shetlanders were picked up at Lerwick for the voyage and exploration of Svalbard. On 11 July, John Gray's Hope and David Gray's Eclipse met up with the Eira and Leigh Smith. Photographer William John Alexander Grant took a photograph aboard the Eira that included Arthur Conan Doyle along with Leigh Smith, the Gray brothers, and ships surgeon William Neale. This was the exploration of Franz Josef Land, that on 18 August, resulted in the naming of Cape Flora, Bell Island, Nightingale Sound, Gratton Island, and Mabel Island. Leigh Smith discovered and named Brochøya, Foynøya, and 31 other points in northeast Svalbard. In 1881, he and his crew survived for 10 months in Russian Franz Josef Land after their ship was crushed in the ice at Cape Flora, Northbrook Island. In August 2017, the ship was found by the crew of the research vessel Alter Ego during the "Open Ocean: Arctic Archipelagos 2017" expedition using sonar at a depth of about, off Northbrook Island.
