Christopher Smith was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 9 February 1880 and baptised in Holy Cross Church on 15 February. Hailing from a Roman Catholic family, he was the son of James Smith, a general labourer who later operated his own provisions store, and Rose Ann Clarke, both natives of Liverpool. He had at least three siblings.

By 1901 Smith was described as a ship’s steward when he and his family were living at 6 Bispham Street, Liverpool. Between 1902 and 1912 he worked as a steward aboard Haverford, Empress of Britain, Carmania, Ivernia, Campania and Saxonia.

Christopher was married in 1906 to fellow Liverpudlian Gertrude Newton (b. 1882) but the couple had no children. The 1911 census shows Christopher lodging at the home of his sister Rose Ann Molyneux and her family at 10 Constance Street, Liverpool and he was described as a ship’s steward. 

In April 1912 Smith was serving as a waiter aboard the eastward-bound voyage of the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic.

Shortly after the Titanic disaster Smith began serving aboard Laconia and continued his career at sea into the 1920s. He later left the sea and worked as a storekeeper for an electrical company and he and his wife spent their last years together living at Harrismith Road in Fazakerley.

Widowed in August 1945, Christopher rallied for more than a decade until his own death in February 1958; he was buried in a public grave in Anfield Cemetery (section 2, grave 645).