Thomas Bywater Smithies
Thomas Bywater Smithies | |
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| Born | 27 August 1817 York, England |
| Died | 20 July 1883 (aged 65) London, England |
| Resting place | Abney Park Cemetery, London, England |
| Other names | T. B. S.[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Businessperson, publisher, editor, activist |
| Known for |
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| Mother | Catherine Smithies |
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Thomas Bywater Smithies (27 August 1817 – 20 July 1883) was an English businessperson, radical publisher, editor, and campaigner for temperance and animal welfare. He was the founder and editor of the broadsheet periodical The British Workman.
Biography
[edit]Smithies was born in York, to James and Catherine Smithies, the second of ten children.[2] His mother was a campaigner for abolitionism, animal welfare and temperance. He converted to Methodism at age 15, joining the Methodist Society.[3] The following year, he started work at the Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company.[4] He also worked as a Sunday school teacher and initiated missionary meetings specifically for children.[5] He became teetotal in 1837, aged 20.[4] Smithies additionally founded the first temperance society in York.[5]
In 1849, Smithies moved to London to become the manager of the Gutta Percha Company.[4] He formed the first Band of Hope in London at his friend Hannah Bevan's house and it included some of her neighbours and children.[6] In 1851, he published Sunday Scholars' Friend and the Band of Hope Review (1851–1937). This was followed by The British Workman in 1855; edited by Smithies.[7] Subsequent publications included The Infant's Magazine, The Children's Friend, The Family Friend, The Friendly Visitor, and The Weekly Welcome.[3]
In 1879, he published the Band of Mercy Advocate (1879–1934), a periodical for the Bands of Mercy movement, which was founded by his mother.[8]
On 20 July 1883, after a period of long illness, Smithies died of heart disease, aged 67.[3][4] He was buried with his mother in Abney Park Cemetery.[9]
Selected publications
[edit]- Illustrated Songs and Hymns for the Little Ones (1858; under the name Uncle John)
- Illustrated Sabbath Facts; or God's Weekly Gift for the Weary. Reprinted from the "British Workman" (1869–1883)[1]
- Gleanings for the Drawing-room, in Prose and Verse (1873)
- Illustrated Anecdotes and Pithy Pieces of Prose and Verse (1874)[10]
- The Earlham Series of Tracts (1880)[11]
- The "Starlight" Temperance series (1881)
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Illustrated Sabbath Facts ; or God's weekly gift for the weary. Reprinted from the "British Workman." [Edited by T.B.S. [i.e. Thomas Bywater Smithies.]". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Smithies, Thomas Bywater (1817–1883), campaigner for temperance and for animal welfare campaigner for animal welfare". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74113. Retrieved 22 June 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c Stevenson, George John (1884). Methodist Worthies: Characteristic Sketches of Methodist Preachers of the Several Denominations, with Historical Sketch of Each Connexion. London: T. C. Jack. pp. 588–591.
- ^ a b c d "SMITHIES, Thomas Bywater (Editor, "British Workman")". BLT19: 19th-Century Business, Labour, Temperance, & Trade Periodicals. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Smithies, Thomas Bywater". DMBI: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ Phillips, Amanda (23 September 2004). "Bevan [née Bennett], Hannah Marishall (1798–1874), philanthropist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45524. Retrieved 31 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "British Workman magazine". Archives Hub. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ "Animals". BLT19: 19th-Century Business, Labour, Temperance, & Trade Periodicals. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ Pinching, Albert (9 June 2019). "Wood Green's Obelisk". Hornsey Historical Society. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ "Illustrated Anecdotes and pithy pieces of prose and verse. Compiled by T.B.S. [i.e. Thomas Bywater Smithies.]". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "The Earlham Series of Tracts. Compiled by T.B.S. [i.e. Thomas Bywater Smithies.]". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
Further reading
[edit]- T. B. Smithies: Editor of "The British workman": A Memoir (1884) by George Stringer Rowe
- Mountjoy, Peter Roger (1985). "Thomas Bywater Smithies, Editor of the "British Workman"". Victorian Periodicals Review. 18 (2): 46–56. ISSN 0709-4698.
- Murray, Francis Allan (2007). Thomas Bywater Smithies and the British Workman: Temperance Education and Mass Circulation Graphic Imagery for the Working Classes, 1855-1883 (PhD thesis). University of Salford.
- 1817 births
- 1883 deaths
- 19th-century English businesspeople
- British animal welfare workers
- British charity and campaign group workers
- Burials at Abney Park Cemetery
- English magazine editors
- English Methodists
- English pamphleteers
- English philanthropists
- English publishers (people)
- English reformers
- English temperance activists
- People from York
- Deaths from heart disease
- Publication founders
- British radicals