George Robert Smith (2 May 1793 – 22 February 1869) was an English banker and Whig politician. His great-grandfather was Thomas Smith, founder of

Smith's Bank Smith's Bank was a series of English banking partnerships in London and the provinces, all controlled by the Smith family that operated between 1658 and 1918. Although Smith's Bank was never a single entity, the first bank was established in N ...

; his father George Smith (1765–1836) was a director of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. His uncle Lord Carrington was patron of the pocket borough of

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...

in Sussex, for which his father was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) from 1830 to 1831. George Robert was returned as MP at the 1831 general election, but the

Reform Act In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

abolished most of the family's pocket boroughs, and Smith was left without a seat at the 1832 general election. He contested Buckinghamshire at the 1837 general election, but without success. The following year his cousin Robert Carrington succeeded to the peerage, and George Robert was elected in his place as one of the two MPs for Wycombe. He held the seat only until the next general election, in 1841, having apparently fallen out with his conservative cousin. Smith was a director of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

from 1837 to 1843, and of the London Smith's from 1850. In 1847 he served on the committee of the

British Relief Association The British Association for the Relief of Distress in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, known as the British Relief Association (BRA), was a private charity of the mid-19th century in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Establis ...

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* 1793 births 1869 deaths English bankers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1837–1841 George Robert 19th-century English businesspeople {{England-business-bio-stub