INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM HENRY SMITH, commonly known as ‘Public Spirited Smith’ or ‘P.P.S.’, was one of the key figures in the development of the foreign settlement in Yokohama in the 1860s and early 1870s. He was involved in nearly every major important initiative in the town. John Reddie Black described him as ‘one of the most energetic and indefatigable men to come to this country’.

‘Any description of “Yokohama in the Sixties” would be incomplete without mention being made of one of the Pioneers, “Public Spirited Smith”,’ wrote Arthur Brent in an article published in 1902. In many ways Smith was the heart, soul and pulse of early Yokohama but in the mid-70s his world suddenly disintegrated financially; he completely disappeared from the spotlight and escaped from Yokohama. He left Japan for the last time in 1883 in order to build a new life in another country but died soon afterwards.

Certain of his grandest creations like the Grand Hotel, the Yokohama United Club and the Bluff Gardens were prominent features of Yokohama life for many decades after his departure.

Of the pioneering Westerners in Yokohama, no one could match his early triumphs in improving life in the town and his popularity. Few experienced such a dramatic and tragic downturn in their fortunes and reputation.

EARLY LIFE AND CHINA DEPLOYMENT

William Henry Smith was born on 14 November 1838 in East Tuddenham in Norfolk, England, where his father, also called William Henry Smith, was the rector. William was the eldest of ten children. In the 1851 Census, William was recorded as a scholar at the school of Mr Joseph Thompson in Guildhall Lane, Dereham, Suffolk.

In August 1851 he entered the relatively new Marlborough College where he developed basic skills in sports such as cricket, football and possibly wall-based sports. After leaving school at the end of the Easter term in 1855 Smith joined the Royal Marines Light Infantry as a gentleman cadet and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Portsmouth Headquarters. He served at Lewes and again in Portsmouth before being sent, at the age of nineteen, to China with the 2nd Battalion. From August 1857 to May 1861 he was attached to the Chinese Coolie Corps in northern China until the evacuation of Peking by Allied Forces.