Hubert Llewellyn Smith

Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith (1864 – 19 September 1945) was a British civil servant. He served as permanent secretary to the Board of Trade from 1907 to 1919, where he played an important role in the Liberal government's welfare reforms. He also served as the chief economic advisor to the government from 1919 to 1927.

Education and early career He was born to Samuel Wyatt Smith, who was from Bristol. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class degree in Mathematical Moderations and Finals. He also won the Cobden Prize. He was briefly a lecturer in political economy to the Oxford University Extension and the Toynbee Trust before he became secretary to the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education for four years.

Civil servant He was appointed the Board of Trade's first Commissioner for Labour in 1893, where his work on statistics led to the Board of Trade Act 1909. Smith was also active in the improvement of industrial relations and in 1895 he helped to settle the strike in the shoe-making industry.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Smith succeeded in putting through his scheme of war risk insurance. Beveridge said that in this role Smith's "superhuman industry, his speed, and his resourcefulness in tackling new problems were demonstrated".

Smith was the chief economic advisor to the government from 1919 until he retired in 1927. He was a member of the economic committee of the League of Nations and deputy delegate to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva for the years 1923 and 1924.

After Smith's death, William Beveridge paid tribute to him as "one of the most constructive practical minds that can ever have served the country".

Personal life Smith married Edith Weekley in 1901 and they had four sons and two daughters.

Works Modern Changes in the Mobility of Labour, Especially between Trade and Trade: A Report to the Toynbee Trustees (London: Henry Frowde, 1901). 'Chapters in the History of London Waterside Labour', The Economic Journal, Vol. 2, No. 8 (December 1892), pp. 593–607. 'British Association for the Advancement of Science.—Sheffield, 1910. Extracts from Address to the Economic Science and Statistics Section', Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, Vol. 44, No. 4 (October 1910), pp. 511–518. 'Economic Security and Unemployment Insurance', Economic Journal, Vol. 20, No. 80 (December 1910), pp. 513–529. The Board of Trade (London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928). 'The New Survey of London Life and Labour', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 92, No. 4 (1929), pp. 530–558. History of East London (London: Macmillan, 1939).