Sir William Sidney Smith, an English admiral, born at Midgham, Sussex, in 1764, died in Paris, May 26, 1840. He entered the navy at the age of 12, and before he was 20 was post captain, serving to the close of the American war. He subsequently participated in the war between Sweden and Russia as a captain in the Swedish service. Afterward, in command of a small English flotilla, he harassed French commerce in the channel, but in April, 1796, was captured by a superior force and confined in the prison of the Temple in Paris. The French government refused to exchange him, but he escaped by French aid after an imprisonment of two years. In 1798 he was put in command of a squadron to operate against the French on the coast of Egypt, and conducted the memorable defence of St. Jean d'Acre against Gen. Bonaparte. Ho signed a treaty with Gen. Kleber for the evacuation of Egypt by the French, which was disavowed by the British government; and he continued to participate in the war until compelled by wounds to return to England in 1801. He afterward returned to service, and at the close of the war received a pension of £1,000. In 1821 he was made an admiral. He was an early advocate of the abolition of the slave trade.

Memoirs of his "Life and Times" were written by Sir John Barrow (2 vols., London, 1847).