Henry Walton Smith

Henry Walton Smith (1738 – 23 August 1792) was the founder of W. H. Smith, one of the United Kingdom's largest bookselling and newspaper vending businesses.

Career

Brought up in Wrington in Somerset, Henry Walton Smith moved to London and became a personal assistant to Charles Rogers, an English customs official and art collector.[1]

In 1792, together with his wife Anna, he founded his news vending business in London.[2]

He died only a few months later on 23 August 1792.[2]

Family

In 1784 he married Anna Eastaugh, a servant girl (1756-c. 1816), leading to the loss of his inheritance.[3] They went on to have two sons, Henry Edward Smith and William Henry Smith, and one daughter, Mary Anne Smith.[4][5]

References
  1. Henry Walton Smith 1738 - 1792, genealogy.links.org. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  2. "History of WHSmith". WHSmith plc.
  3. "Secrets of our favorite brands revealed". AZ Vision. 21 January 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  4. Reade, Compton (1904). "The Smith family, being a popular account of most branches of the name--however spelt--from the fourteenth century downwards, with numerous pedigrees now published for the first time". Elliot Stock.
  5. Anna Eastaugh (Easter) 1756 - c. 1816, genealogy.links.org. Retrieved 14 February 2022.


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