John Smith (1798–1888) was a British botanist who was the first curator at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Kew Gardens), starting in 1841. He had first been employed at the gardens as a stove boy (stoking stoves to warm the greenhouses) in 1822. Along with the directors, Sir William Jackson Hooker and Sir Joseph Hooker, he oversaw the conversion of the gardens from private royal gardens to public gardens when Queen Victoria converted them, possibly saving them from oblivion.
