THE RIGHT HON.
JAMES PARKER SMITH
AS Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Right Hon. Joseph
Chamberlain, Mr. Parker Smith played a very intimate part in the vital affairs
of the nation, both during the South African War and at the inception of Mr.
Chamberlain's later scheme of Fiscal Reform. But he has always been one of those
who took politics seriously and wrought hard in the House of Commons.
Eldest son of the late Archibald Smith, LL.D., F.R.S., of
Jordanhill, and Susan, daughter of Vice-Chancellor Sir James Parker, he was born
in London, 30th August, 1854, and educated at Winchester and Trinity College,
Cambridge. He had a distinguished college career, was 4th Wrangler and 2nd
Smith's Prizeman in 1877, was successively a Scholar and Fellow of Trinity and a
Fellow of Winchester College, and is M.A. of his University. He was called to
the Bar in 1881, and unsuccessfully contested Paisley five years later; but in
1890, on the death of Mr. Craig Sellar, was elected as a Liberal Unionist for
the Partick Division of Lanarkshire, which seat he held till the General
Election of 1906.
Mrs. Parker Smith is a daughter of Mr. William Hamilton, of
Minard, and during the South African War took a most active part in relieving
the distress among the families of soldiers at the front.
Mr. Parker Smith has always taken a strong interest in the
housing of the working-classes, and on his estate of Jordanhill he has done much
to promote habits of thrift and forethought by letting, at a low price, ground
on which workmen might built their own dwellings. He is in close touch with the
vital interests of the community as a director of the Union Bank, of the City of
Glasgow Life Assurance Company, the Glasgow District Subway Company, and the
Glasgow Harbour Tunnel Company, and as chairman of a Lanarkshire Coal Company.
He is on the Commission of the Peace for Lanarkshire and for Glasgow.
Back to
Index of Glasgow Men (1909)