Edward Arthur Smith, Eddie to most, but Edd to his wife, was born on 25 May 1887 to George Frederick and Mary Overall Smith. The 1911 Census shows him as a baker living with his mother at Mill House, West Mersea. In 1915 he married Eva Cissy Bagworth, known to all as Baggy or Bags.

Eddie was "called up" in 1917 and served in the Army Service Corps (ASC). The ASC was responsible for transporting everything needed by the fighting soldiers from the French ports to huge dumps near the front line. They had to transport equipment, food for the men and their horses and vast quantities of ammunition, for both the infantry and artillery. Their role was no sinecure; many were wounded or killed as they operated very close to the front. Eddie was seriously wounded by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel passing right through his abdomen.
His wounds required further major surgery during WW2.

Eddie bought the Abberton Bakery from his mother in 1928 and the family moved there from High Street North, West Mersea. In 1948 Eddie sold the Abberton Bakery to Nathan 'Si' Smith, son of Eddie's older brother Preston Smith. As part of the purchase agreement for the bakery, Eddie and Baggy bought the bungalow in Suffolk Avenue, West Mersea, where Si Smith and his wife lived. Si and Beryl had called it 'Siberall' but Eddie and Baggy changed it to 'Dengie'. Eddie then worked at the Mersea bakery and for many years ran the shop and was very good with customers.
Eddie died in 1973 and Baggy in 1979.