Ernest Alfred Smith was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England on 21 February 1880. He was articled to Hedley John Price (1861-1905) in Nottingham from 1895 to 1899 and remained with him as his assistant until 1901. He then worked as an assistant to Arthur Eaton in Derby in 1902-03; and to Frank Becket Lewis (1861-1932), Nottingham City Architect, from 1905.
Smith subsequently remained in Nottingham where he practised as an architect. He was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1911 and was a member of the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire Architectural Society.
Drawings and plans of a house designed by him are illustrated in Designs for One Hundred Ideal £1,000 Houses. Being copies of the hundred best designs entered in the 1912 Daily Mail Architects' Competition (1912 p.95).
His address was given as 34 Dunlop Avenue Lenton Nottingham in 1911 and 1914; 15, Rothesay Avenue, Lenton, Nottingham in 1923; 21, Teversall Avenue, Lenton, Nottingham in 1926 and 1930; and 86 Sutton Passeys Crescent, Wollaton Park, Nottingham in 1935 and 1953. He died in Nottingham on 28 December 1953
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