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Bill Smith

Winter sports pioneer;

Born: June 12, 1924; Died: January 14, 2012.

Bill Smith, who has died aged 87, was among the first British members of a new elite profession: winter sports engineers.

Born in Glasgow, the youngest of three, he left school at 14 and started his working life as a delivery boy for a butcher. At 16 he gained a much sought-after place as an apprentice with Rolls-Royce at Hillington. It was there he first came into contact with the climbing scene.