Reginald Donald Smith (31 July 1914 – 3 May 1985) was a British teacher and lecturer, BBC radio producer, and possible communist spy. He was the model for the character of Guy Pringle in the novel sequence Fortunes of War written by his wife, Olivia Manning.
Early life
Smith was born and brought up in the working-class neighbourhood of Aston Manor, Birmingham, the son of a toolmaker, William Smith and his wife Annie Griffiths, who supplemented the family income as a charwoman doing paid housework and cleaning. Reggie, as he was generally known, attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Aston; the family were frequently short of money since his father was often ill; to save expense, Smith never told his parents that he needed glasses for his very short sight. Having read David Copperfield at the age of 12 he determined that he wanted to become "a teacher to share the wonder of such books with others." Smith went on to Birmingham University, from which he graduated in 1937 with a BA degree with honours in English literature. Smith had a great love of poetry and a phenomenal memory for poems, prose and plays. While at university he founded the Birmingham Socialist Society and met poet Louis MacNeice, at the time an assistant lecturer in classics. He became a lifelong friend.
According to MI5 files, Smith was recruited as a Soviet spy by the art historian Anthony Blunt during a visit to Cambridge in 1938. He commented later, "I think I presented Anthony Blunt with a conundrum: was I rough trade or was I a gent slumming? I think that it went through his mind that I might make good spy material." Smith was unusual material for a spy; ebullient and friendly, he made no secret of his communist beliefs, and friends reported him unable to keep secrets. His flamboyant character and lifestyle was to cause some concern among other spies, who according to MI5 criticised his behaviour as not showing "the stability or competence that should distinguish a party member".
Romania, Greece, Egypt, Palestine
After tackling multiple temporary jobs including actor, postal worker, archaeologist, editor, and teacher, Smith applied for a post with the British Council, and was posted as lecturer in English in Bucharest, Romania in 1938. He returned on leave to the UK in the summer of 1939, and was introduced to the novelist Olivia Manning by the writer Walter Allen. In preparation for the meeting, Smith had read her work. He admired it greatly, and considered it showed "signs of genius"; he was also immediately smitten with its author. A few weeks later, on 18 August 1939 the pair were married at Marylebone registry office, with MacNeice and the poet Stevie Smith as witnesses. Unconventional as ever, the bridegroom failed to produce a wedding ring for the ceremony. Throughout their marriage, Smith strongly supported his wife's writing, encouraging and sustaining her during Manning's frequent despondency and discouragement about her success.
A few days later, Smith and his bride were recalled to Romania, arriving just as Britain declared war on Germany. Smith was exempt from military service due to his work with the British Council, though it is likely that his poor eyesight would have meant failing the required medical. During their 13 months in Romania, Smith and Manning witnessed the approaching war, including the abdication of King Carol and the rise of Fascism. The couple's experiences were to form the basis of the first two novels of the Fortunes of War, The Great Fortune and The Spoilt City. Smith appears in the novel as the central character of Guy Pringle, a large, extroverted, and gregarious communist who pays little attention to his new wife while lavishing attention and time on everybody else. The Smiths participated regularly in the café society, but Manning often went home early, leaving her new husband to expound earnestly but naively on the merits of communism, including how much better Jews would be well treated in a Russian-occupied Romania, and excusing the Soviet pact with Hitler, and the Red Army's invasion of Finland. Just as in the novels, Smith's name was broadcast by the Gestapo as that of a spy.