The name W.H. Smith is associated with a nationwide chain of newsagents, booksellers and stationers; however, it was also the name of two businessmen, father and son, the second of whom had strong links to Portsmouth where his generosity enhanced the skyline
Let’s start off by going back to 1792, when the news-agency business began, somewhat counter-intuitively, with a gentleman by the name of H.W. Smith, Henry Walton (1738-92). During the same year, Henry’s youngest son, William Henry Smith (1792-1865), was born and then tragically, less than two months later, Henry passed away.
William entered his father’s news-agency business in London’s Strand in 1812 and assisted by his elder brother, Henry Edward, and the business’s co-founder, his widowed mother, Mary Smith (died 1816), succeeded in growing it into Britain’s largest of its type by making significant use of the ever-expanding railways and fast carts to get deliveries out into country areas, even chartering express trains, and on one occasion a boat, in order to get the news out there as fast as possible. When Henry Edward left the firm (1828) the company adopted the WHSmith name that persists to this day. The first W.H. Smith, retired in 1857, would plot a Hampshire coastal feet-up for himself, moving to Bournemouth in 1862 and taking up residence at the newly completed Walton House, named after his father. Sadly, his retirement would be rather short-lived as he died just three years later.
The scene was set however, for the second W.H. Smith, another William Henry (1825-91), the son of W.H. Snr. and the staunch Methodist Mary Ann Cooper, to take the business even further. He was one of eight siblings, but the only boy, and was born in London. William Henry Jnr. had a few more strings to his bow than his father, being not only a newsagent and bookseller, but also a statesman. Born in London on June 25, 1825 he’d become his father’s partner in 1846 before eventually assuming the full control of the business. Under his stewardship the firm enjoyed a rapid expansion and in 1849 Smith secured the rather lucrative privilege of selling newspapers and books at railway stations. It was the birth of the news kiosk, the first newsstand being at London’s Euston station, the first bookstall contract following with the North London Railway (1855). Another innovation followed in 1860, circulating libraries, that continued for just over a century. Smith Jnr. would marry Emily Danvers (1828-1913) in 1858, the couple having six children and he’d be made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1878.
Smith Jnr. failed in his first attempt to gain a parliamentary seat in 1865, when he finished bottom of the poll, but entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1868, the successful family business offering a springboard into politics. He then held various government positions including Financial Secretary of the Treasury (1874-77), a Privy Councillor (he was sworn in in 1877), First Lord of the Admiralty (1877-80) and Secretary of State for War (1885-86), the same year (1885) that he became Lord of Great Thurlow (in his father’s home county of Suffolk), briefly holding the Chief Secretaryship in Ireland (1886), and then during the second ministry of Lord Salisbury he became First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the Commons until his death on October 6 1891. Having been First Lord of the Admiralty, but without any naval experience, Smith possibly inspired the character of ‘Sir Joseph Porter’ in ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’, the Gilbert & Sullivan comic-opera.
If ‘Pinafore Smith’ as he was dubbed sounds a bit irreverent, the citizens of Portsea were deadly serious about their debt to the man. There’s a window and plaque inside St Mary’s, Portsea, which declares: ‘To the glory of God and in memory of the Right Honourable William Henry Smith M.P. First Lord of the Admiralty 1877-1880, First Lord of the Treasury 1887-1891. Born June 24, 1825. At rest Oct 6, 1891. By whose munificent benefactions this church was mainly built and to whose unfailing sympathy and wise counsel the parish of Portsea owes a debt which it can never repay. This window was dedicated on the festival of All Saints Nov 1, 1892’. The window was originally to have been in memory of the 900-plus lives lost when H.M.S. Royal George sank in the Solent in August 1782, but Smith’s credentials trumped even that.
The church had only been built 1887-89 so Smith must have been among the first of those to be honoured with a memorial and the reason for the glowing testimonial can be explained. The plans for the latest church on this site had been fairly modest to start with until an anonymous Portsmouth resident offered to double whatever the parish was able to raise. When Smith passed away in 1891 it quickly became evident that he’d been the anonymous donor of 1887 and the sum he’d donated by the time he died was a hefty £28,000 (getting on for £3 million in today’s money), out of a total build cost of £44,000, enabling this Grade II Listed church to become among the largest parish churches in the country and possibly Hampshire’s finest Victorian building. Without Smith’s benevolence there wouldn’t be the magnificent J.W. Walker & Sons organ either.
W.H. Smith had become Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1891 which is how he came to die at Walmer Castle on October 6 of that year. His widow was raised to the peerage, being created Viscountess Hambleden the following month in his honour. The Hambleden Collection at Reading University contains the papers of the Smith family of which the papers of William Henry Smith Jnr. form the greater part. These include family papers, material pertaining to business, estates and philanthropy, and political affairs. Of Smith’s family papers the dominant section is a lengthy list of letters that he wrote to his wife, some 1,250 of them, as well as letters to/from his parents, children and friends. There’s also a number of letters relating to the rebuilding of St Mary’s.
Smith Junior’s life was written by Sir Herbert Maxwell in 1893. He was known as ‘Old Morality’ due to his rather austere approach to life which makes him sound anything other than a barrel of laughs. The Georgian enterprise that was first started by his grandfather would grow to own more than 1,700 stores in 30 countries worldwide, its presence still prominent at railway stations, but also in High Streets (over 600 in the UK), at hospitals, airports, motorway services etc.
1825 – Birth of William Henry Smith Jnr. (June 25) in London.
1846 – Becomes a partner in WH Smith before later assuming full control.
1849 – Expands into the lucrative business of kiosks at railway stations.
1858 – Marries Emily Danvers, the couple going on to have six children.
1868 – Becomes a Member of Parliament for the first time.
1877 – Becomes First Lord of the Admiralty, bringing him to Portsmouth.
1887 – Anonymous donor for St Mary’s Portsea, enabling the new church to be built.
1891 – Death of William Henry Smith in Walmer, Kent (October 6) aged 66.
