Sir Swire Smith was an English woollen manufacturer, educationalist and Liberal Party politician.
23 Facts About Swire Smith
1.
2.
Swire Smith was born in Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest son of George Smith and his wife Mary.
3.
Swire Smith was educated at the local National School in Keighley and at Wesley College, Sheffield.
4.
On leaving school Smith served an apprenticeship with a Keighley worsted manufacturer.
5.
Swire Smith was prominent in the reorganisation of the institute and was largely responsible for the school's gaining in notability.
6.
Swire Smith became an expert in the area of technical education.
7.
Swire Smith was said to have been inspired by a speech given by the author and advocate of self help Dr Samuel Smiles and took up the cause because he presciently believed that Britain was falling behind its international competitors, particularly Germany.
8.
Swire Smith later travelled a good deal in Europe and the USA to develop his understanding and expertise in the field and published a number of pamphlets and press articles on the subject.
9.
Swire Smith was appointed as representative on the Royal Commission on Technical Education which sat from 1881 to 1884, and was a member of the committee of the National Association for Technical Education in which capacity he presented papers to international bodies including to the International Congress on Technical Education.
10.
Swire Smith became a mill owner and rose to be a senior partner of a worsted spinning concern in Keighley.
11.
Swire Smith was sometime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers.
12.
Swire Smith was a Liberal and described himself as a convinced Free Trader.
13.
Swire Smith was a founder of the West Riding Free Trade Federation and an executive member of the national Free Trade Union.
14.
Swire Smith had been elected as a Liberal to the Keighley School Board in 1875 and was its chairman for three years.
15.
Swire Smith was later approached to stand for Parliament, both for the seat of Skipton as well as for his home town of Keighley but had always refused.
16.
Swire Smith was duly elected MP for Keighley, his election being remarkable for his advanced age at the time of the contest, and he entered the House of Commons at the age of 73.
17.
Swire Smith was knighted in the Queen's birthday honours list of May 1898.
18.
Swire Smith was a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding and for Keighley, Vice Chairman of the Royal Commission on International Exhibitions, a member of the Standing Committee of Advice for Education in Art and in 1912 he was granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Leeds University.
19.
Swire Smith was made a freeman of Keighley in 1914 and in 1967, Eastwood School in Keighley was renamed the Swire Smith Middle School in his honour and memory.
20.
In conversation with Carnegie at his home, Skibo Castle in Sutherland, Swire Smith celebrated the success of Keighley's students but lamented the need for a public library in the town to support them.
21.
In 1901 Andrew Carnegie was granted the Freedom of the Borough and Sir Swire Smith laid the library foundation stone in 1902.
22.
Swire Smith died of congestion of the lungs on 16 March 1918 in a London nursing home after a minor operation on his prostate gland, at the age of 76.
23.
Swire Smith's funeral took place at Devonshire Street Congregational Church in Keighley four days later.