Hi! I’m Eddy Smythe.

I was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone and had what I consider to be a privileged childhood. With my brother and two sisters, we lived outside the village of Wilberforce, a small neighbourhood in the capital. I attended the Prince of Wales school which was considered one of the best schools at that time in the capital and while not a highly academic student, it provided a great bedrock for my future . My family lived less that half an hour away from the beautiful Lumley Beach and memories of picnics on a Sunday morning after church are indelibly printed in my memory. I always knew that at some stage, my siblings and myself would go off to Britain to further our studies. This was something I looked forward to with great excitement.  

I came to the UK in 1976 initially with aspirations to study music before returning to Sierra Leone. I quickly realised that this was not a viable option and after my A level’s was at a loss as to what to do. I decided I wanted to train as an accountant and very quickly realised this was not my destiny either. I ended up working in a property department for a large retail group by default, but in doing so had found my true destiny. I would work for this group for several years before setting up my own property development consultancy.

My fledgling company was retained by an international retail group for over 25 years and was heavily involved in the company’s expansion in the South West of the UK. I continue to work with them until the present day. I am also a director and part owner of a small residential development company which builds houses in the local vicinity. Like my father who continued to have various business interests during his life, I was a shareholder and director of an indoor football centre in Durham for over 14 years. Our small group of investors would acquire the land, build the premises and run the enterprise until being acquired by another company in 2018. 

My home country of Sierra Leone remains close to my heart and in 2018, I did a charity bike ride starting in the province of Bo in Sierra Leone and finishing in Robertsport in Liberia to raise funds for a charity called Street Child which has its roots in the country. We cycled through a village which had one school and met children who walked over five miles to attend it, sometimes barefooted. The sad thing was that this school had no water! I resolved to fund the works required to provide a well and pump for the school as there are no water mains in the vicinity. I am pleased to say they now have water which is used not only by the school, but the whole village. I am also a trustee of a charity called Reseed based in the country. It provides micro loans to individuals to assist them in developing small businesses which become sustainable.

In 2014 I bought a redundant dairy farm in South Oxfordshire where I built a house nestled at the foot of the Chiltern Hills and where I still live with my wife Jo. I played squash in the county leagues for over 15 years and along with racquetball, I continue to play on a regular basis. I also enjoy skiing and am an advanced scuba diver.

My other love unsurprisingly is all things to do with flying. I achieved my helicopter pilot’s licence 18 years ago and for 10 years used this form of travel on a regular basis for business purposes.

I continue to run my company but I also now give talks, presentations and lectures about the incredible story of my father’s life to various groups around the country. These include schools, universities, the RAF, Police, Museums, Libraries, the British Legion, Government Councils and various community groups. I have also given interviews on TV and radio stations and contributed to various podcasts. It is important to me to share his legacy as it can be inspirational and demonstrates what can be achieved with determination, dedication and a will to  succeed.   

I also have a love of music and together with my brother John, we are two members of the reggae band Dubwiser who recently produced the song Johnny, in tribute to our father. Johnny appears on the EP The Empire Windrush, available now on all good streaming services: