Ted Smith came from a relatively poor background; his father Arthur was a plumber, and his parents ran a bakery and grocery shop. He attended Leeds University, and studied English, where he was taught by Bruce Dickins.Smith, Ted (2007), "Trustees for Nature", p. 20. Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, He spent much of his adult life working firstly as a teacher in Leeds and then Norfolk, and then as an adult education tutor in Lincolnshire.
