Cyril Smith - Early Career

Early Career

Smith was educated at Rochdale Grammar School for Boys and after leaving began work at Rochdale Inland Revenue Tax Office. In the 1945 General Election, aged 16, he gave a public speech in support of Liberal candidate Charles Harvey. Smith said he was given an ultimatum by his manager in the Tax Office to either choose the civil service or politics.

He left his job at the tax office and obtained employment as an office boy at Fothergill & Harvey's mill in Littleborough, to the northeast of Rochdale. The mill was owned by the Harveys, a notable Liberal family, but Smith claimed the director Charles Harvey knew nothing of the job application by the young man who had lost his job for his public speech in favour of Harvey's Liberal party candidature.

Smith joined the Liberal Party in 1945 and was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Young Liberals in 1948 and 1949. From 1948 to 1950, he was Liberal agent in Stockport, but after the poor general election results experienced by the Liberal Party in 1950 and 1951 he was advised by the losing Liberal candidate for Stockport, Reg Hewitt, to join the Labour Party.

In 1952 Smith was elected a Labour Party councillor for the Failinge ward of Rochdale. By 1954, he was chairman of Rochdale Council's Establishment Committee. In 1963 he switched committee roles to be responsible for Estates which included overseeing residential and town centre development.

In 1966 he was Rochdale's mayor and his mother Eva was mayoress. She retained her job as a cleaner in Rochdale Town Hall while in the post. Smith's mayoral duties were recorded for a BBC Man Alive documentary. In 1966 he was appointed chairman of the Education Committee overseeing the introduction of comprehensive education in the district. In the same year he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. According to his autobiography, Smith was found guilty of an offence relating to public lotteries and bound over to keep the peace for 12 months.

In 1966 Smith resigned the Labour whip when the party refused to vote for an increase in council house rents and sat with four other councillors as independents until 1970. His defection, and subsequent election as a Liberal MP, caused surprise after his role in opposing Ludovic Kennedy, the Liberal candidate in the 1958 Rochdale by-election. Controversy was sparked by Rochdale Liberals when the parliamentary candidate, Garth Pratt, was deselected to make way for Smith's return to the party.

During the 1960s Smith was active on many Rochdale Council committees regarding youth activities. These included: Rochdale Youth Orchestra, Rochdale Youth Theatre Workshop, governorship of 29 Rochdale schools and chairmanship of the Youth Committee, Youth Employment Committee and the Education Committee.