Albert Smith
(1816-1860)

[The pages for sittings 100 to 300 are missing from Volume 1 of the Silvy daybooks but according to the index to all thirteen volumes, this must be either sitting number 103 or 104.]

The English author, journalist, lecturer and entertainer Albert Richard Smith was born at Chertsey in Surrey on 24 May 1816. He studied medicine in Paris and his first literary effort was an account of his life there, which appeared in The Mirror. He gradually relinquished his medical work for light literature. He was one of the most popular men of his time, and a favourite humorist in the vein of humour then in vogue. He was one of the early contributors to Punch and was also a regular contributor to Bentley's Miscellany, in whose pages his first and best book, The Adventures of Mr Ledbury, appeared in 1842. His other books were: Christopher Tadpole (1848), issued in monthly parts; PoMeton's Legacy (1849); and a series of so-called natural histories, The Gent, The Ballet Girl, The Idler upon Town and The Flirt. He also adapted some of Charles Dickens's stories for the stage. He founded and edited a monthly magazine called The Man in the Moon, from 1847 to 1849.

In 1851 he ascended Mont Blanc, and the year after produced at the Egyptian Hall a descriptive entertainment, which he called simply Mont Blanc, describing his ascent of the mountain. This success was followed by other similar entertainments. 'In the Autumn of 1858, therefore, he went to China, and after remaining there a sufficient time to make himself acquainted with the manners, customs, and national peculiarities of the inhabitants of the flowery land, he returned to London, and commenced a series of pictorial and descriptive Chinese entertainments, always delighting his over-flowing audiences. [...] His pictorial entertainments are believed to have enabled him to realise a considerable fortune' (Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury, 26 May 1860).

Smith married in 1859 Miss Mary Keeley, the eldest daughter of the comic actor Robert Keeley. 

He died 'of a sudden and severe attack of bronchitis' on 23 May 1860 at North End Lodge in Fulham. His estate was valued at £18,000 (later resworn at £16,000).