Wh smith birthday

The “& Son” was added in 1846 when William Henry’s son also called William Henry entered the business on his 21st birthday. WH Smith jr saw potential in the new railway network and on 1 November 1848 the company opened their first railway bookstall at Euston and more railway bookstalls followed.

In 1850 they acquired wholesale distribution warehouses in Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool and a substantial rail based newspaper distribution network was established across the country.

Wh smith birthday cake

They rapidly became the UK’s principal newspaper distributor.

Their bookstalls became outlets for cheap reprints of out-of-copyright books which were specially produced for railway travellers and were known as “yellowbacks”.

The company took a very moral stand on the type of books that they stocked and each volume was carefully vetted, even adverts came under close attention. In 1857 W H Smith Snr. retired and W H Smith II took over the busin