# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Smith, George Barnett

​SMITH, GEORGE BARNETT (1841–1909), author and journalist, born at Ovenden, Yorkshire, on 17 May 1841, was son of Titus and Mary Smith, Educated at the British Lancastrian school, Halifax, he came in youth to London, and there worked actively as a journalist. From 1865 to 1868 he was on the editorial staff of the 'Globe,' and from 1868 to 1876 on that of the 'Echo.' He was subsequently a contributor to the 'Times.' With literary tastes and poetical ambition, Smith managed to become a contributor to the chief magazines, among them the 'Edinburgh Review,' the 'Fortnightly Review,' and the 'Cornhill Magazine.' Although he lacked scholarly training, he was an appreciative critic. A memoir of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (1876) satisfied Robert Browning, with whom Smith came into intimate relations. It was the poet's custom to send Smith proofsheets of his later volumes in advance, to enable him to write early reviews.
An industrious compiler, Smith gained the ear of the general public by a long series of biographies, the first of which dealt with Shelley (1877). A strong liberal in politics, he was more successful in his 'Life of W. E. Gladstone' (1879; 14th edit. 1898), and in his 'Life and Speeches of John Bright' (1881). There followed popular lives of Victor Hugo (1885), Queen Victoria (1886; new edit. 1901), and the German Emperor William I (1887). His most ambitious publication, 'History of the English Parliament' (2 vols. 1892), occupied him five years, and claimed to be 'the first full and consecutive history of Parliament as a legislative institution from the earliest times to the present day'; but Smith's historical faculty was hardly adequate to his task.
Interested in art, Smith in his leisure practised etching with success. Several specimens of his work were included in 'English Etchings' (1884-7). An etching by him of Carlyle was purchased by Edward VII when Prince of Wales.
In 1889 lung-trouble forced Smith to leave London for Bournemouth, and for the rest of his life he was an invalid. A conservative government granted him a civil list pension of 80l. in 1891, and a liberal government increased it by 10l in 1906, Writing to the last, he died at Bournemouth on 2 Jan. 1909, and was buried in the cemetery there. Smith was twice married: (1) to Annie Hodson (d. 1868); (2) in 1871, to Julia Timmis, who survived him. He had four daughters, of whom two survived him. An etching of him by Mortimer Menpes and an oil-painting by Rosa Corder are in the possession of his widow. Smith published under the pseudonym of Guy Roslyn three volumes of verse and 'George Eliot in Derbyshire' (1876). He was an occasional contributor to the early volumes of this Dictionary. Among works not already noticed are the following: 1. 'Poets and Novelists,' 1875. 2, 'English Political Leaders,' 1881. 3. Women of Renown,' 1893. 4. 'Noble Womanhood,' 1894. 5. 'The United States,' 1897. 6. 'Canada,' 1898. 7. 'Heroes of the Nineteenth Century,' 3 vols. 1899-1901. 8. 'The Romance of the South Pole,' 1900.
[Letters of Robert Browning, privately printed by T. J. Wise, 1895 ; Brit. Mus. Cat.; The Times, 4 Jan. 1909 ; private information.]