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The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Smith, Sir Edwin Thomas

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1447724The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Smith, Sir Edwin ThomasPhilip Mennell

Smith, Sir Edwin Thomas, K.C.M.G., M.P. is the son of the late Edwin Smith, of Walsall, England, where he was born in 1831,and educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School. Having emigrated to South Australia in 1853, he became a brewer in a large way of business, and was Mayor of Kensington and Norwood in 1868, 1869, 1870, 1872 and 1873, and of Adelaide in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1887 and 1888. He has been member for East Torrens in the Legislative Assembly since 1871, and was Minister of Education in Mr. (now Sir) John Bray's second Government, from March to June 1884. He was a Commissioner for South Australia to the various international and intercolonial exhibitions in which that colony took part between 1876 and 1888; and in 1887 was the principal promoter of the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition, of which he was Vice-President. In recognition of his services in connection with the latter he was created K.C.M.G. in 1888. Sir Edwin married, first, in 1857, Florence, daughter of Robert Stock, of Clifton, who died in 1862; and, secondly, in 1869, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Spicer, of Adelaide.