Pilot Officer Arthur Bertram Smart DFM was born in Darjiling, West Bengal to parents Carlton Wernicke Smart and Eliza Maud (nee Mallins).

His occupation before enlistment was a Fitter and he was employed by Evans & Sons in Portsmouth. He enlisted in July 1938 and was described as 5ft 8 inches tall with brown hair and hazel eyes. He married Doreen Wilmshurst in 1942.

On the night of 12/13 June 1943, he was part of the crew flying Lancaster Mk.III (serial number ED603) which took off from RAF Wyton to take part in a bombing raid on Bochum in Germany. During this raid ED603 was hit by flak causing damage. As the damaged plane made its return journey it was intercepted and attacked by a German fighter plane and ED603 crashed into the Ijsselmeer near the village of Markkum with the loss of all seven crew.

The bodies of four crew members were recovered and buried in local cemeteries in The Netherlands, whilst Arthur and the remaining two crewmen were listed as missing and commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Arthur was 29 years old when he was killed.

Through the National Program for the recovery of aircraft wreckages with missing crew from Second World War funded by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in The Netherlands, Lancaster ED603 was recovered. Arthur's remains along with his two crewmates, Pilot Officer Charles Sprack DFM, and Pilot Officer Raymond Moore DFM were recovered in 2023.

Arthur, Charles and Raymond were laid to rest with full military honours at a ceremony attended by their relatives in CWGC Workum (Spoordyk) General Cemetery in The Netherlands on 9 October 2025, their collective grave D.1.11. marked by newly inscribed Commission headstones to be cared for in perpetuity.