Sir Sydney Smith
Toronto. Sir Sydney Smith was born in New Zealand in 1883. He left for Edinburgh to become a doctor and ultimately held a prestigious chair in medicine at Edinburgh University. He was a well travelled author who wrote many books and articles including the text-book Forensic Medicine first published in 1925.
While Sir Sydney was both an author and educator in Britain and abroad, his skills were often called upon by the police and the courts. In his autobiography he uses many police scene of crime photographs to illustrate his text.
Modern day police organizations are major users of photography to record events and scenes and to capture the details of a crime. In January, 2007, we had the pleasure of hearing from Larry O’Grady on “The History and Applications of Photography in the Toronto Police Service“. Larry’s talk included some photographs that were deemed inappropriate for publication on the web (various reasons). While the basis for photographs is often forensic medicine, the actual photographs belongs to the police and are used in the courts to demonstrate key points on any criminal case.
