Edward Tyrrel Smith

Edward Tyrrel Smith (1804–1877) was a versatile British entrepreneur and showman, best known as an opera and theatrical manager.

Life He was the illegitimate son of the Irish naval officer Edward Tyrrell Smith (died 1824). Clement Scott gives the anecdote that he was about to sail as a midshipman with Lord Cochrane, when his mother objected.

For a period of the 1840s, Smith took over the London premises of Crockford's in St James's Street, and ran a restaurant there. He was also involved in attempts to revive the popularity of Vauxhall Gardens. In 1860 Smith staged Sims Reeves at Her Majesty's Theatre. Suffering a year with heavy losses, he was still able to take on Cremorne Gardens for a period from 1861, Astley's Amphitheatre briefly in 1862, and the Royal Lyceum at the end of the decade. He married again, late in life.