Henry Hawley Smart (1833–1893) was an English army officer and novelist, who wrote as Capt. Hawley Smart. He was praised for his realistic racing and hunting scenes, and depictions of military incidents.

Family

Smart was born in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

on 3 June 1833. He was the son of Major George Smart and his wife Katherine, sister of

Sir Joseph Henry Hawley, 3rd Baronet Sir Joseph Henry Hawley Bt. (1813–75) was a noted English thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder. Life Hawley was born in Harley Street, London, on 27 October 1813 , the eldest in a family of ten children. His parents were Sir Henry Hawl ...

, a wealthy racehorse owner whose wife Sarah Crosbie came from a landed

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

family. His grandfather, Col. Henry Smart, had been governor of

Dover Castle Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some sources say it is the ...

earlier in the century. Smart was married in 1883 to Alice Ellen, daughter of John Smart of

Budleigh Salterton Budleigh Salterton is a seaside town on the coast in East Devon, England, south-east of Exeter. It lies within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and forms much of the electoral ward of Budleigh, whose ward population at t ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. Smart died at his residence there, Laburnum Cottage, West Hill, on 8 January 1893. His wife survived him.

Army career

Smart was privately educated and then commissioned in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

as an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

in the 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots) in 1849, through the influence of the future

Lord Raglan Baron Raglan, of Raglan in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 October 1852 for the military commander Lord FitzRoy Somerset, chiefly remembered as commander of the British troops ...

. He served through the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, being promoted to captain in 1855. He sailed in 1857 for India, where he served during the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

. In 1858 he switched to the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment and was stationed in Canada. He left

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in 1864 and then sold out of the army.

Novels

Losses on the turf spurred Smart into becoming a novelist. Among his models were the Irishman

Charles Lever Charles James Lever (31 August 1806 – 1 June 1872) was an Irish novelist and raconteur, whose novels, according to Anthony Trollope, were just like his conversation. Biography Early life Lever was born in Amiens Street, Dublin, the second s ...

(1806–1872) and the Scotsman

George Whyte-Melville George John Whyte-Melville (19 June 1821 – 5 December 1878) was a Scottish novelist much concerned with field sports, and also a poet. He took a break in the mid-1850s to serve as an officer of Turkish irregular cavalry in the Crimean War. Li ...

(1821–1878). Beginning with ''Breezie Langton: a Story of Fifty-Two to Fifty-Five'' (1869, several times reprinted), one of the few British novels set in the Crimean War, he produced 38 novels in all, the last being ''A Racing Rubber'' (1895), which appeared posthumously. In line with practice at the time, many appeared first in instalments in periodicals, such as ''St James's Magazine'', or in weekly parts in newspapers. They have been described as "novels of 'society', military life, racing, and hunting... entertainment rather than literature," whose weaknesses of plot and dialogue were offset by realistic racing and hunting scenes and by military incidents often drawn from his own experience. Henry Hawley Smart was listed in the "Novelist" category in a poll on "Who are the Greatest Living Englishmen?" published in the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' in 1885.

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

in an 1888 lecture made a comparison of the readerships of Smart and

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

(1819–1880): "There are love affairs in Captain Hawley Smart's novels: so there in are in George Eliot's; but I suspect that the admirers of Captain Hawley Smart find George Eliot rather heavy. And I believe that 'rather heavy' means to them 'comparatively unreal'. The things of which Captain Hawley Smith writes, seen as he describes them, are vivid and interesting – pleasant parts of ''his'' readers' daily life and thought. On the other hand, the admirers of George Eliot do not see these things as Captain Hawley Smart sees them, and take no interest in the excitements and gaieties incidental to them. For example, one cannot imagine a disciple of George Eliot reading a sporting column of a newspaper, or sympathizing with the good luck of a hero who is saved from ruin by winning a fortune at the expense of the other gamblers on a racecourse. Nor can we imagine a disciple of Captain Hawley Smart subscribing to ''Mind'', or recognizing any sense or importance in the scruples of the man who refuses to bet." ''The Great

Tontine A tontine () is an investment linked to a living person which provides an income for as long as that person is alive. Such schemes originated as plans for governments to raise capital in the 17th century and became relatively widespread in the 18 ...

'' (1881) was republished in 1984 in an anthology of four novels entitled ''Victorian Villainies'', edited by

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

with an introduction by his brother

Hugh Greene Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British television executive and journalist. He was director-general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969. After working for newspapers in the 1930s, Greene spent most of his later ...

. This was reprinted in 1995.London: Claremont Books.

Bibliography

References

External links

*A photographic portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London
Retrieved 16 January 2012.
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Henry Hawley 1833 births 1893 deaths 19th-century English novelists Horse racing novels Royal Scots officers Royal Leicestershire Regiment officers English male novelists People from Dover, Kent 19th-century English male writers