Date of Birth: 
About Bob Smithies
- For the Rugby League footballer see Robert Smithies Robert Smithies (4 April 1934 – 31 July 2006) was a British photographer, journalist and crossword compiler.
- He was born in Middleton, near Rochdale, Lancashire. Smithies began his career from school at the Manchester Evening News as a darkroom assistant, progressing to the post of photographer there and later at the Manchester Guardian.
- Smithies joined Granada Television in the mid-1970s and presented a number of television programmes between then and 2005, including Down To Earth.Since his first cryptic crossword was accepted by The Guardian newspaper in 1966, Smithies was a regular compiler for the newspaper, under the pseudonym Bunthorne, the name taken from the leading character in the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera Patience.As a crossword setter his clues became known for requiring potentially obscure general knowledge, ranging from Austen and Dickens to French cheeses.
- One of his most famous clues was "Amundsen's forwarding address (4)" - (mush).
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