Smith, anything but common

My mother-in-law (you can read her sweet love story here) has always said she never cared for her surname, Smith, as it was so very common. But I find her grandfather, Joe Smith, anything but common. 

Joseph Edward Smith was born on 31 March 1873 in Whitechapel, and was baptized 24 August 1873. He married Emily Maud Foster in Hackney on 3 August 1896. His occupation at the time was cheesemonger’s assistant. Five years later, in the 1901 census, Joseph is a baker’s assistant and he and Emily are living at 7 London Road, Hackney. Like many, Joe appears to have fudged his age when he enlisted in WWI on 12 December 1915.  

Joseph was devoted to Emily and they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1946. They had four children, three of whom died without issue. His activities in the trade union movement brought him in contact with the family of William Adams: William's daughter ended up marrying Joseph's youngest son: Thelma and her sister Kathleen are the result, the only grandchildren to Joe and Emily.  

Kathleen passed on some reminiscences of their grandfather:

Joseph was a small man, even as a child he looked short to me. The most he would have been was 5 ft , 7 inches tall. I remember he was someone who liked to be outside in the company of other men. He used to go the park and play bowls and he liked to go to cafés for a cup of tea, and I think he met up with his friends there. He smoked a pipe but Emily would not let him smoke in the house. I remember him going into the garden to smoke. He was a nice man with a quiet temperate nature.

Children perceive their family members one way, while adults see things through a different lens. Joe died in 1953, and his legacy earned him several column inches:

[Feb 1953]

TRADES UNION PIONEER DIES

Within 24 hours of being admitted to Langthorne Hospital, Leytonstone, following a short illness, Mr. Joseph Edward Smith, of 18, Coronation-gardens, Leyton, died last Thursday. He was 79 years of age.

Born at Whitechapel, Mr. Smith had lived in Leyton over 40 years. A member of the Leyton and District Committee of the Tobacco Workers Union, he was employed as a tobacco stripper until his retirement in 1938.

A keen trade unionist, Mr. Smith served on Walthamstow Trades Council early in 1900, and during the 1914–18 war contested Leytonstone Ward – then a conservative stronghold – in  the Layton Borough Council elections. In 1893, he was a member of the Socialist Democratic Federation, a forerunner of the Labour Party, and was a founder member of the Shop Assistants’ Union which is now incorporated with N.U.D.A.W.

During 1920, Mr. Smith was actively associated with the Layton and Leytonstone Poor Children’s Outing Fund, a body which had the patronage of a local mayor. 

He served with the Royal Scots in the First World War. 

A widower since March, 1950, He is survived by two sons and a daughter. 

The funeral was at Queens-road Cemetery, Walthamstow, on Tuesday, the service being conducted by the Rev. R.W. Sorenson, M.P. for Layton.

Joseph Edward Smith