Donald Sydney Smith OBE (27 July 19201 December 1998) was an Australian operatic tenor. His voice had a bright Italianate quality which could match, in size carrying power and tonal allure, the voices of most sopranos and mezzos. He attracted a fiercely loyal public following, and many Australians who had no prior experience of opera became opera lovers through Smith's work. His performances were regularly sold out with The Australian Opera at the Sydney Opera House. Early years and background Donald Sydney Smith was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 27 July 1920. Smith's early schooling and education was spasmodic and at around 10 years old, while in 4th grade primary school, he was removed from school by his parents (Donald Sydney Smith and Elizabeth Maud Smith - née Clarque), to help work on his family's milk run and dairy property. At around the age of 12 years old he was sentenced to the notorious Westbrook Farm Home for boys (outside Toowoomba), where he spent some seven months for allegedly stealing and 'joy riding' in a friend's sister's boyfriend's motor vehicle with some of his mates. It is understood that Donald was the only youth in the group who was able to drive a motor vehicle, which he learned to do helping his father deliver milk on the family milk run. (Today such a misdemeanour by a child of 12 years old would barely warrant a slap on the wrist). Donald was subsequently released into the care of relatives of his mother a Mr Leslie Robertson in Toowoomba and he then went to live with them in Brisbane. The circumstances of Donald's 'trial' and 'sentence' have never been detailed. Also it still remains a mystery as to why his father Donald Senior and his mother Maud would have allowed such a sentence to be carried out (with appeal) for such a small misdemeanour. During the period after Donald's release from Westbrook, in his early teenage years, Donald continued to educate himself whilst working as a sugar cane cutter on properties in and around the Bundaberg area. At the age of 16 years Donald gained his first employment with the Bundaberg Millaquin Sugar Mill and started training in the capacity as a sugar chemist. At the age of 18 years old, Donald met Ms Thelma Joyce Lovett, who eventually became his lifelong partner and whom he married in Bundaberg in 1942. They