The Late Sir Henry Babington Smith
| Published date | 01 December 1923 |
| Date | 01 December 1923 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1923.tb02152.x |
Sir
Henry
Babington
Smith
The
Late
Sir
Henry
Babington
Smith
N
1903
there was a vacancy in the Secretaryship of the Post Officc and the
I
department was suddenly stirred by the news that
hlr.
H. Babington Smith,
C.S.I., had been appointed. Little being known of him except that he
had
some connection with the Ottoman Public Debt, reference books were eagerly
searched, but these only revealed that he was young as Post Office secretaries
went, being only forty
;
had distinguished himself academically, and married
a
daughter of the Viceroy of India.
Jobbery was suspected, but
if
the suspicion was well founded, the job was
fortunate, for Babington Smith was one of the most brilliant men who ever
went to St. Martin’s-le-Grand. He was not very impressive at
a
first meeting.
Good-looking, suave, and self-possessed, there was a curious shyncss about
him, and, like men who are physically finely proportioned, he lookcd smaller
than he really was and had a certain nattiness in his ways which made the
casual observer think less of him than he deserved. Genius is ever expected
to be untidy. The impression was only momentary, for tlie shortest conversa-
tion with Babington Smith revealed his immense power and wonderful capacity
for grasping details.
One
of
his finest achievements he probably regardcd
as
of small importance,
but for several days in
1906
he gave evidence before the Hobhouse Committee
and nothing could have becn more thorough and brilliant than his survey of
Post Office staff conditions and his answers to the innunerable questions
thrown at him. He had only been in the Post Office two years and during
that time an immense amount of work had passed through his hands
;
yet
never once did he falter and although his audience contained
at
least
a
dozen
men eagerly waiting to find some mistake in his evidence, men whose knowledge
of their particular sections extended
over
twenty or thirty years, he was never
convicted of error, although of course his deductions and conclusions were
regarded
as
wrong by many.
With
all
his courtesy he could be exceedingly caustic and sometimcs a little
unjust, and one eminent official of the Post Office never forgot or forgave
a
sentence
of
Babington Smith’s which dropped from him quietly and almost
casually, but was
of
the most burning character.
He could carry an immense amount of work and was peculiarly fitted
for
tlie
International Conferences which occurred during his tenure
of
office and at
which he was an outstanding figure. His exceptional knowledge
of
foreign
languages was of great value on these occasions.
In the Post Office little was seen or heard of him after
1909
when he went
back to Turkey, and
it
is doubtful whether he ever recalled his Post Office
experience except as an episode in an extraordinarily varied career, but those
who worked, and sometimes suffered under him will never forgct the six
years
of
his secretaryship.
Lord Buxton, who has a capacity for the felicitous phrase, summed
up
Babington Smith in
a
few words
as
possessing
“
a
high scnse of honour.
a
clear intellect and a fine temper.”
363
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