Henry Babington Smith

Sir Henry Babington Smith (29 January 1863 – 29 September 1923) was a senior British civil servant, who served in a wide range of posts overseas, mostly financial, before becoming a director of the Bank of England. He was related to the Babington family through his maternal grandmother Mary, a daughter of Thomas Babington, and his children took the double surname Babington Smith.

Early life and education Smith was born at Riverbank, Putney, London on 29 February 1863, the son of the lawyer and mathematician Archibald Smith. His brothers were James Parker Smith, later an MP, and Arthur Hamilton Smith, later Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read classics. He was a Cambridge Apostle.

Career In 1887, he joined the Board of Education as an examiner, but in 1891 became principal private secretary to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Goschen.

In 1894, he became private secretary to Lord Elgin on his appointment as Viceroy of India. This relationship was cemented when he married the Viceroy's eldest daughter, Lady Elisabeth Mary Bruce (1877–1944), on 22 September 1898 in Simla.

The First World War saw him holding a variety of posts connected with finance, including deputy governor of the British Trade Corporation. In 1915, he participated in the Anglo-French Financial Commission to the United States. The same year he was appointed as chairman of a Royal Commission looking at the process of making appointments within the Civil Service. He was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1917. In 1918, he accompanied Lord Reading to the United States as assistant commissioner and minister plenipotentiary.

After the war, he chaired the Indian Finance and Currency Committee in 1919 and the Railway Amalgamation Tribunal in 1921. He was appointed a director of the Bank of England in 1920.

Smith was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours for his services in the United States.

Family

Babington Smith married Lady Elizabeth Bruce (1877–1944), the eldest daughter of Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, the Viceroy of India. They had four sons and five daughters:

Michael Babington Smith (1901–1984): Brigadier, CBE, TD Henry Babington Smith (1902–1982) Bernard Babington Smith (1905–1993): OBE Margaret Babington Smith 1907–1997), married Charles de Bunsen David Babington Smith (1909–1989) Lucy Babington Smith (1910–2005), married Henry Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland Constance Babington Smith (1912–2000): MBE, Legion of Merit Susan Babington Smith (1917–2003), married Sir Anthony Wakefield Cox Elizabeth Babington Smith (1921–2008): MD, FFARCS, married to Reece Lloyd-Jones

The family home was Chinthurst, in Wonersh, and later Vineyards, in Saffron Waldren.

Ancestry

Footnotes