Dates

• Existence: 1858 - 1940

Biography

George Charles Moore Smith (1858-1940) was born at Whittlesea, Isle of Ely, the son of a solicitor, and the grandson of the Rev. James Clarke Franks, Vicar of Huddersfield, and of Elizabeth Firth of Thornton who was a friend of the Brontë family. He was educated at Tonbridge School and, from 1877 to 1884 at St. John's College Cambridge, initially with an Entrance Exhibition in Classics which he exchanged in 1880 for a Foundation Scholarship. In 1881 he took a 1st Class Classical Tripos. He then turned his attention to English studies, on which he appears to have worked from 1881 to 1896. For some years he remained in Cambridge as a University Extension Lecturer, though he spent the session 1887/8 in the University of Berlin, and also travelled frequently at other times in Germany where he formed many friendships. In 1896 he moved to Sheffield as Professor of English Literature in Firth College, one of the three institutions which, in the following year, jointly formed University College, and for which Moore Smith edited the College magazine Floreamus (a publication which continued into the University era), composing the College song of that title. In 1905, with the inauguration of the University of Sheffield, he continued in his post, building up a successful School of English at Sheffield where he remained until his retirement in 1924. But he was also devoted to the spread of culture beyond the University and especially amongst ordinary people, lecturing for the Workers' Educational Association and supporting settlements in poorer districts, such as the Sheffield Educational Settlement founded by Arnold Freeman, on whose Council he served as a member from 1921-3. An inspiring and helpful lecturer to many, it should nevertheless be mentioned that for some reason he disliked the presence of women students and ignored them to a large extent in class. His work for the University beyond his primary academic duty was notable, and amongst other activities he served on its Council from 1911 to 1916 and as Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1911 to 1913.

In addition to his strictly academic work, one of Moore Smith's most important roles was to act as Honorary Librarian, first of University College and then of the University, from 1897 until 1907. The Library was in its earliest days in a parlous condition, based in totally unsuitable premises and with an insignificant budget. Moore Smith set about obtaining donations of volumes from academic friends in Oxford, Cambridge and elsewhere, and the success of his efforts resulted in the acquisition of substantial donations from various individuals, notably Charles Harding Firth at Oxford, who had been the first Head of the History Department at Firth College, and J.E.B. Mayor at Cambridge, so that by the inauguration of the new University in 1905 some 10,000 volumes were in the Library stock. Sir Charles Firth would eventually donate a substantial part of his extensive personal library to the University, much of which valuable material forms the basis of today's Rare Book Collection. Following the opening of the new University in 1905, when the local industrialist Edgar Allen generously offered the sum of £10,000 for the building of a new library, Moore Smith, together with Gibbs, the University architect, began to plan what was to be the Edgar Allen Library, visiting university libraries elsewhere in Britain in order to gain the best insight into what was required, and the new purpose-built library of unusual octagonal design was opened by Royal visitors in 1909.

Moore Smith was honoured by academic awards: Hon. Ph.D., Louvain (1909), Hon. LL.D., St. Andrews (1923) and Hon. Litt.D., Sheffield (1927). A fine scholar, his interests and publications were many, ranging over and beyond Shakespeare, other Renaissance and early drama, and history, and include for example The Story of the People's College, Sheffield (1912). His international standing is demonstrated by the fact that on his 70th birthday a dinner was held in his honour attended by scholars of six nations. He died on 7 November 1940.

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