She was the daughter of Will Smithson, a well-known provincial theatre manager.[1] She was born in Leicester in the heart of England, but was raised in south Wales, where her father owned and ran the Theatre Royal, Merthyr Tydfil.[2] She made her stage debut at the age of three in pantomime. After leaving school she studied at the London College of Music.[1] Various singing engagements followed, and while she was touring with a small opera company in La fille du régiment, she was spotted by the impresario Robert Courtneidge.[2] Under his management she toured in 1904–05 as Nanoya in The Cingalee and Chandra Nil in The Blue Moon.[1]
In August 1905, she made her first appearance in the West End repeating her role in The Blue Moon and making an immediate success.[1] From then until the First World War she made occasional variety appearances and played in a series of musical comedies.[2] The latter included The Dairymaids, Tom Jones, The Arcadians (in which she created the role of Sombra), The Mousmé, The Sleeping Beauty, An Indian Romance and The Sleeping Beauty Re-Awakened.[2] In July 1914, she sailed for Australia, but the outbreak of war curtailed her tour.[1] Returning to England in 1915 she toured in variety theatres and played pantomime seasons in London.[2] Australian and South African tours followed in the 1920s, and she returned to England in 1927. One of her last engagements was in a national tour of The Gipsy Princess.[1]
She had a singing voice of great purity, and audiences waited expectantly for her trademark pianissimo high notes.[1] The operatic star Adelina Patti dubbed her "the Nightingale of Wales".[1]
Smithson was the first wife of the actor Dan Rolyat.[2] She died after an operation in Cardiff at the age of 51.[1]
