Tom Smith

They call me many things: Murderer. Cutthroat. Thief. But you may call me Tom Smith.

This article is about a subject that lacks an official name and is known only by its nickname, title, or alias.

Tom Smith (died 17 July 1747) was the alias of a mercenary in the British Army who was employed by the Templar Edward Braddock. He bore a notable deformation of two pointy ears.

Biography[edit | edit source]

On 4 December 1735, Tom and four others attacked the Assassin Edward Kenway at his mansion in London, killing Edward, kidnapping his daughter Jennifer, and obtaining his journal on Isu Temple locations for the British Templars.^[1]

Twelve years later in 1747, Tom was serving with Braddock's Coldstream Guards in the Dutch Republic during the siege of Bergen op Zoom, but was ordered to find and kill Jack Digweed in Germany. He returned before his accomplice did, hoping to avoid someone finding out about his desertion, but he was spotted by Edward's son Haytham, now a Templar himself, who pursued Tom on horseback.^[1]

After tiring out their horses, Tom and Haytham fought, but were apprehended by the British, who mistook Haytham for Tom's fellow deserter and knocked him unconscious. Tom was later hung by Slater before Haytham came to and demanded to see Braddock, though Braddock expressed indifference to one of Jennifer's kidnappers having been under his command all along.^[1]

Legacy[edit | edit source]

"Haytham has been asking questions as to what happened to that gormless father of his. Do not fret, though, the brat still does not suspect a thing. But I had to kill that pointy-eared lout to mask your involvement."

―Edward Braddock in his letter to Reginald Birch, 1747.^[src]^-[m]

As a hired blade, especially one who operated among the British soldiers under a generic pseudonym, Tom's impact after life was unremarkable and he was missed by few.^[1] Shortly after Tom's hanging, Braddock wrote of the events which had transpired in a letter to the British Templars' Grand Master Reginald Birch.^[2]

In his note, Braddock said that he had been forced to kill Tom to ensure that Haytham remained unaware of Birch's secret role in orchestrating the attack on his family. He then added that, while he thought Haytham should have been died in the raid years ago, he would certainly kill him as a man if he persisted in asking questions about the night of his father's death.^[2]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Tom Smith is a character introduced in the 2012 novel Assassin's Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden. He later appeared in several illustrations from Haytham Kenway's database entry in the community site Assassin's Creed: Initiates, which recounts the novel's events.

Tom makes a cameo appearance in the 2023 comic Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple, in one of the visions of the future experienced by Edward Kenway.^[3] Since the vision in question depicts Edward's death, the illustration from Initiates showing the same event is reused, albeit modified to fit the comic's artstyle. As a result, Tom appears visibly younger, with a full head of brown hair.