Charles Benjamin Smith was born in Ipswich, Suffolk on 23 April 1885 and was articled to Edward Fernley Bisshop (1850-1921) and Henry Munro Cautley (1876-1959) in Ipswich from 1900 to 1904. He also attended the Royal College of Art in London. He worked as an assistant to Thomas Henry Baler (1852-1934) and William Henry Wrightson (1872-1951) in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex in 1904-05; to Arthur George Spencer in 1906; and to T. H. Baker in 1907-08.
Smith qualified as an architect in 1908 and commenced independent practice in London in 1910. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1909 and Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1928. His address was given as North Hill Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, and The Acacias, North Hill Road, Ipswich, Suffolk in 1909; 17 Devonport Road, London in 1914; 11 New Court, Carey Street, London, 1923 and 1926; 1 New Court, Lincoln's Inn, London in 1930 and 1935; and 9 Eastern Road, Hornsey, Middlesex in 1939. He died in Hendon, London in 1955.
Barclays Bank, Sunningdale, 1912; Dormy House Club, Sunningdale, 1910; several country houses, near Ascot, 1910-13; flats, Inverness Terrace, Bayswater, 1914; block of flats, South Kensington, 1914; Kinora Company's factory, Letchworth, 1910: Arborite Syndicate's factory, Islington, 1910; shops, Stoke Newington (1922), and Willesden Green (1923); bungalows, Sevenoaks and Hadley Wood, 1923-24; business premises, Felixstowe, 1924; petrol station, Hackney (1925), and garages, Highgate, 1924
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001