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John Guthrie Spence Smith was the son of a linen draper who died whilst JGSS was a small child. He was rendered deaf and dumb in infancy and attended schools for the deaf in Dundee and Edinburgh. He proceeded to study at the College of Art in Dundee and then at the RSA Life School and the Trustees Academy before finally attending evening classes at the new Edinburgh College of Art from 1908 to 1910. In 1911 and 1912 he visited France in the company of his mother, and he was to continue to produce paintings throughout his career based on this early and unique trip abroad. He exhibited with the Edinburgh Group in 1912, 1913 and again from 1919 to 1921. After the death of his mother in 1934 he lived with the artist William Mervyn Glass, RSA. He exhibited at the RSA from 1909 until 1951. He became an Associate Member of the RSA in 1930 and an Academician in 1939. Perth Museum and Art Gallery holds the largest collection of his works in public hands, some bequeathed by the artist whose stamp collection [?and his RSA medals] were also bequeathed to Perth. vide Rodger, Robin H. 'J G Spence Smith RSA,' booklet to accompany an exhibition at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, 1986 to mark the 35th Anniversary of Spence Smith's death.