Sir Malcolm Smith was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland. Smith was born and brought up in a crofting family in Hoswick Shetland but moved to the port of Leith as a young man. There he prospered as a businessman and became the Provost of Leith from 1908 to 1917, shortly before the town was incorporated into the city of Edinburgh. He was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland in a by-election in May 1921, following the death of the sitting MP, Cathcart Wason. Having stood in the by-election as a Coalition Liberal, supporting the coalition government led by David Lloyd George, he stood at the 1922 general election as a National Liberal, but was defeated by the Liberal party candidate Robert Hamilton. He is buried in Warriston Cemetery to the south-east of the vaults.