In an eight-year international career Gilbert Oswald Smith would play twenty times internationally, if the unofficial match against Germany in 1901 is included, scoring eleven times and captain on at least thirteen occasions, possibly sixteen.
G.O., as he was known, was one of the great sportsmen of his generation, not only a noted footballer but a talented all-round, first-class cricketer with the bat and ball for Oxford University and Surrey. He was born in 1872, the year football began in earnest in Scotland and was the cousin of Charles Smith, twenty-two years his junior, who had also played international football two decades earlier, winning a single cap in 1876.
Both Charles and G.O. were centre-forwards, although G.O. was also as accomplished and would play as an inside-forward. He was known for his technique, if anything even more a "maker of goals" than a scorer, although his goals record is far from poor, and a man who out of choice even conviction rarely headed the ball. His skill was in his feet, his close control, his balance, timing, accurate, low, hard shooting and passing, his intelligence shown in his positional play, and his attitude. He was described as,
"the most brilliant, indeed perfect, footballer in the world around the turn of the century",
and
"the first, great centre-forward."
one who,
"transformed the role of the centre-forward from that of an individual striker into a unifier of the forward line, indeed the whole team."
So who was G.O. Smith? Who was this link-man? Physically he seems to have been nothing special, at 5 ft 10 ins a good height for the times but of slender build and a sufferer from asthma. Yet he was said to be tough like "whipcord" but extremely fair, and the skill that, more than any other, set him apart from his contemporaries was his ability to draw defenders around him and then slide an accurate pass to,
“an unmarked team-mate well positioned to score”
Smith was clearly some player, and regarded as such by those he played both with and against. He was clearly also a gentleman and a Gent. He had learned his football at public school, Charterhouse, before going up to Oxford University in 1892. There he played in the first team from his matriculation, captaining it in his final year. And it was at Oxford that he won his first international caps, initially in 1893 at inside-right and scoring in a 6:1 victory over Ireland and the following year in his second appearance against Wales at centre-forward.
After Oxford he became a noted school-teacher and went on to play for elite, amateur clubs, Corinthian and The Casuals F.C.. With the former his record was 132 goals in 137 matches. With The Casuals it was better still, forty-two goals in just twenty-nine appearances. He never played professional football, remaining an amateur throughout his career but was respected by amateur and professional alike. Perhaps his greatest complement was when Steve Bloomer, the great forward with Derby and England, said of him, as the era of the amateur came to an end but amateurs still generally looked down on professionals like the Derby-man as social inferiors,
"He was the finest type of amateur, one who would always shake hands with us professionals in a manner which said plainly he was pleased to meet them."
But Gilbert Smith, like his cousin, Charles, had a secret. It was not that both played for England. That much is plainly on the record. In fact G.O. would play alongside John Goodall more than once and he shared the same secret. Smith would even be his captain in Goodall's final international game, a 0:3-victory in 1898 against Wales, G.O. at centre-forward, Johnny at inside-right, when the two of them might well have discussed accidents of birth and not for the first time.
Goodall, the consummate professional, had been born in London, the son of a Scots mother and a Scottish soldier posted to the English capital but had been raised and had learned his game in Kilmarnock. He spoke with a Scots accent, nevertheless his birth-place meant only English eligibility. In the Smith family the dynamic was different but with the same result. Charles, had been born in the East Indies, in Ceylon, and because it had been before the 1887 IFAB ruling on Empire and paternity could only play for England and not the land of James, his father. James Smith was a Scot, born in Edinburgh. Equally G.O.'s father, Robert, a retired merchant in India, was also Scots-born and had G.O. seen life like his cousin in the Sub-Continent with the IFAB ruling by then in place he would have been in principle eligible for Scotland. But sadly he had come into this World not in Calcutta, Calgary, Christchurch or Cape Town but Croydon. It too left him under the then current regulations with only one international choice.
So instead of pulling on the blue shirt G.O. would play seven times for England against Scotland. He also captained against Scotland on five occasions but scored only once against the team of his father, in the 2:1 win in 1899. In fact his record against his father's and uncle's hame in a period when the Scottish national team struggled was less than average; winning twice, drawing twice, one at home and once away, and losing three times. Nevertheless his record was better than that of cousin Charles. His England team had in that 1876 encounter lost by three goals without reply.
Oh, and G.O. was quite possibly gay. He never married, living out his last years with two of his sisters, dying at the age of seventy one in 1943 in Lymington in Hampshire but spending much of his working life living with a fellow Corinthian and Casuals player and England, amateur international, William Oakley, who had died in 1934.