William Reardon Smith
Sir William Reardon Smith (1856-1935) of Sir William Reardon Smith and Sons was an English shipowner
Born in Appledore, Devon, the youngest son of Thomas Reardon Smith, a sailing ship captain, and his wife Elizabeth (née Green; died January 1906). After her husband and eldest son Philip Green Smith were lost at sea when the schooner Hazard sank off the coast of South Wales in October 1859, his mother was forced to bring up her surviving eight children alone on her income as a dressmaker.
Educated at the Wesleyan School in Appledore.
He left the sea in December 1900 and joined his wife Ellen, who had recently relocated the family home from Appledore to Cardiff.
Once settled in Cardiff, he entered into a partnership with William Seager, a Cardiff ship's chandler, to establish the Tempus Shipping Co, which then ordered their first ship the Tempus. After the partnership broke up after little more than a year, Reardon Smith decided to go it alone.
In 1905, together with his son Willie, he founded his own company, W. R. Smith and Sons, based in Cardiff. W. R. Smith & Son operated from 1905 to 1909 before being succeeded by W. R. Smith & Sons between 1909 and 1922, and then finally Sir W. R. Smith & Sons Ltd from 1923 onwards.
1913 Established the Great City Steamship Co
1916 Bought the Coniston Water Steamship Co
1919 August. Floated the Leeds Shipping Co, followed in October by the Cornborough Shipping Line
1921 Established the Reardon Smith Line with capital of £1,000. It was renamed the Reardon Smith Navigation Co in May 1928 following the renaming of the St Just Steamship Co