Biography
Smith was born at Ashlyns Hall, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, and went into banking. He became known locally as a philanthropist, doing his best to improve educational standards in his home district. In 1834 he acquired the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall for £20,000, and set about changing the islanders' way of life, expelling those who could not find a job locally and evacuating some of the smaller islands, where small populations were farming at barely subsistence level.
Read more about this topic: Augustus Smith
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)