Arthur Lionel Smith (1850 – 12 April 1924) was a British historian at the University of Oxford. He served as Master of Balliol College, Oxford from 1916 to 1924.
A. L. Smith studied at Balliol College, Oxford from 1869 to 1874.
Smith became a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford in 1882, Dean in 1907, and was Master 1916–1924.
Smith was important in developing history teaching. He was a close friend of the pomologist Ronald Hatton.
In 1879, Smith married Mary Smith, with whom he had nine children. They first lived at 7 Crick Road in North Oxford until 1893. Their daughter Miriam married the diplomat Sir Reader Bullard. His daughter Rosalind married Oxford historian Edward Murray Wrong.His youngest daughter Barbara married Sir Hugh Cairns (surgeon) the first Nuffield Professor of Surgery.