T H E R E I G AT I A N 2 018
FEATURES
UNCLE HENRY SMITH CLIVE WILKINSON RGS 1952-1959
A few weeks ago I stood in some awe in front of the superb monument to Henry Smith, which stands close to the altar in Wandsworth Parish Church. Born and buried in Wandsworth, it is a magnificent tribute to the man who made Reigate Grammar School possible, bedecked as he is in the majestic robes of his office of alderman and carrying a skull as a memento mori.
I
had made the 300-mile trip to London especially to see this monument, for over recent years I have come to understand what Henry Smith has meant to my family as well as to RGS and the wider community. When I was a student at RGS I had no idea that the school owed its existence to Henry Smith. Still less did I know that I owed my very existence to the Smith family!
£1,000, the proceeds of which were ‘for the use of the poor Captives being slaves under the Turkish pirates.’ My family’s personal interest in the man is that Smith’s will also bequeathed a legacy for ‘the use and relief of the poorest of my kindred’, through his sister Joane, as Henry Smith had no children of his own. Some members of my own widely extended family have, in recent years, benefited from that generosity and thoughtfulness.
For almost as long as I can recall there had been some talk in my family about a very wealthy ancestor who had been an alderman in London who had left a legacy that we could call on if any of us were ever to encounter rough patches in our lives. The story had it that in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Henry Smith had been a wealthy salt merchant, had possibly dabbled in the silver business, and had at one time been captured by Moorish pirates off the north coast of Africa. He almost certainly benefited from the big land grab that followed the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
More than three hundred years later I undertook my own researches. What I uncovered astonished me, for it seems that my family has a very personal link with Henry Smith. I have a letter from the Henry Smith Charity confirming my pedigree, through my mother’s side, in the long line of descendants from the Smith family. I can trace my lineage directly back to Henry Smith’s sister. Technically speaking, therefore, Henry Smith is my great, great... to the 11th degree great uncle. I suppose therefore that I am entitled to refer to the eminent man as Uncle Henry!
His encounter with Moorish pirates, if true, may account for the fact that Henry Smith’s will included an investment of
I attended RGS when it was under local authority control, and so had no fees to pay. If fees had been payable, and if I had
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TODAY, THE HENRY SMITH CHARITY IS ONE OF THE LARGEST INDEPENDENT GRANT MAKERS IN THE UK, AND IN 2016 DISTRIBUTED £28 MILLION.
