Edmund Davidson Smith was born on the 27th of June 1833 and was listed as a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 95th foot (Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment in 1912.  He served the 95th foot as an Ensign in 1853 in the Crimean War and was later promoted to Lieutenant on the 6th of June 1854. A year later, he was promoted again to Captain on the 5th of June 1855. In 1857 he served in the Indian Mutiny. In 1866 he is registered as a Major and became a Fort Major and Adjutant in Jersey on the 16th of January 1874.

Edmund married Mary Mathilda Cooke-Collis, daughter of the famous Cooke-Collis family from Castle Cooke in Cork, Ireland. The couple received three children. Their son Edmund Hyde Smith later became Rear Admiral in the British Navy. Edmund is also registered as the father of Mabel Sarah Anne Hyde Macbean, born on 9 May 1867 and later married Herbert Wyatt Harrisson in 1907. Mabel died on the 27th of May, 1952. 

He was a member of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland since 1857 and became later a member of the United Grand Lodge of freemasons of England in 1869. Edmund D. Smith was later listed as a Major-General in 1916 and died the same year on the 13th of September 1916 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London (memorial: 67. 3. 26978)