William Henry Smith, Esq. (1825-1891)
William Henry Smith (1825-1891), was the driving force behind the famous newsagent and stationer’s W. H. Smith. Established in 1792, W. H. Smith’s first store was opened by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in Little Grosvenor Street, London. A few decades later, W. H. Smith opened the first ever travel retail store in London’s Euston station in 1848. The business stayed as a family firm until 1928.
London born, Joseph Durham (1814-1877) was apprenticed to the sculptor John Francis (1780-1861), and thereafter worked in the studio of Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867). He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1835. His busts of Jenny Lind (1848) and of Queen Victoria (1856) attracted a great deal of attention. In 1858 he won the commission for the Memorial to the Great Exhibition of 1851, which ultimately included the electrotyped statue of Albert, Prince Consort following Albert’s death in 1861.
Between 1835 and 1878 Durham exhibited 126 pieces of sculpture at the Royal Academy and six at the British Institution. He was noted for his figures of boys engaged in sporting activities. One of his major works was a Leander and the Syren, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875.
