Mb ChB Manch 1925, MD 1927 (gold medal); FRCP Lond 1940
Smirk studied medicine at Manchester where he gained a number of academic distinctions. He was house physician at medical registrar at MRI. Smirk was lecturer in pharmacology at University College London before being appointed professor of pharmacology at the University of Egypt, Cairo, and from 1940 at the University of Otago in New Zealand.