Mrs Oswald Smith
(1805-1891)
25 April 1861

Volume 3, page 147, sitting number 3279.

Born in London on 6 January 1805, Henrietta Mildred Hodgson was the daughter of the Very Reverend Robert Hodgson, from 1820 to 1844 the Dean of Carlisle, and his wife Mary née Tucker.

On 18 March 1824 she married Oswald Smith, son of George Robert Smith and scion of the family firm, Smith’s Bank. Their marriage produced twelve children, including Frances Dora Smith, who married Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore, whose granddaughter Elizabeth married the Duke of York, later King George VI. Mrs Oswald Smith is therefore a great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.

She appears on the 1861 census living at Blendon Hall, Bexley, Kent. Also present on the night of the census were twenty-six live-in servants, including a butler, an under-butler and four footmen, with more servants in outlying buildings on the estate.

Her husband died at Blendon Hall on 18 June 1863, leaving an estate valued at £250,000. Following his death, the family sold Blendon Hall.

Mrs Oswald Smith appears on the 1881 census living at 20 Rutland Gate, Hyde Park, London. She had five servants to look after her.

Mrs Oswald Smith died, aged 86, on 19 November 1891 at 20 Rutland Gate, London. She left an estate valued at £6045.