Digby Smith, also known to Napoleonic enthusiasts as Otto von Pivka, is a British military historian. The son of a British career soldier, he was born in Hampshire, England, but spent several years in India and Pakistan as a child and youth. As a "boy soldier," he entered training in the British Army at the age of 16. He was later commissioned in the Royal Corps of Signals, and held several postings with the British Army of the Rhine.After a career in the British Army Signal Corps, he retired and with a friend started a company selling body armor, followed by several years working in the telecommunications industry. After his second retirement, he lived for a while in Hanau, Germany, but has moved back to Britain.