![]() After the death of the second Viscount in 1928, the business was reconstituted as a limited company, in which his son, the third Viscount, owned all the ordinary shares. Smith the younger in 1891, his widow was created Viscountess Hambleden in her own right their son inherited the business from his father and the viscountcy from his mother. Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1868 and serving as a minister in several Conservative governments. It also ran a circulating library service, from 1860 to 1961, and a publishing business based at the Steam Press, Cirencester. In 1850, the firm opened depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening news-stands on railway stations, beginning with Euston in 1848. Smith & Son when his only son, also named William Henry, became a partner. After their deaths, the business - valued in 1812 at £1,280 (equivalent to £90,700 in 2021) - was taken over by their youngest son William Henry Smith, and in 1846 the firm became W. In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. This was briefly revived on special bags and merchandise to mark the firm's 225th anniversary in 2017. History Formation The WHSmith logo until the early 1990s, featuring the then-familiar cube of letters. WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. ![]() ![]() WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. ![]()
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