Archibald Levin Smith

Sir Archibald Levin Smith (26 August 1836 – 20 October 1901) was a British judge and a rower who competed at Henley and in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Smith was the son of Francis Smith, J.P. of Salt Hill, Chichester and his wife Mary Ann Levin. He was baptised at New Fishbourne, West Sussex although he had some Jewish ancestry. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He suffered from the pituitary disorder, acromegaly, which caused him to grow to nearly 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. Athletic as well as tall, he rowed for Cambridge in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in the 1857, 1858 and 1859 races. Oxford won in 1857 and Cambridge in 1858. In 1858 he was in the winning crews at Henley Royal Regatta in the Grand Challenge Cup with the C.U.B.C. and in the Visitors Challenge Cup and the Wyfold Challenge Cup with First Trinity Boat Club.

In the 1859 Boat Race "the race was rowed in a gale of wind, and the Cambridge boat filled and sank between Barnes Bridge and the finish.... Smith alone of the Cambridge oarsmen could not swim, and sat stolidly rowing until, when the water was up to his neck, he was rescued." In later years he regularly bet a new hat on the Boat Race with W.B. Woodgate "on principle and from patriotism to his flag, even when public favour and market odds might seem to be dead against the hopes of his own club."

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