Editing Henry John Stephen Smith (section)

==Life==

Smith was born in [[Dublin]], [[Ireland]], the fourth child of John Smith (1792–1828), a [[barrister]], who died when Henry was two. His mother, Mary Murphy (d.1857) from [[Bantry Bay]],<ref name="auto">{{Cite web | url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Smith.html |title = Henry Smith (1826-1883)}}</ref> very soon afterwards moved the family to England. He had thirteen siblings, including [[Eleanor Smith (activist)|Eleanor Smith]], who became a prominent educational activist.  He lived in several places in England as a boy. His mother did not send him to school but educated him herself until age 11, at which point she hired private tutors. At age 15 Smith was admitted in 1841 to [[Rugby School]] in [[Warwickshire]], where [[Thomas Arnold]] was the school's [[headmaster]]. This came about because his tutor [[Henry Highton]] took up a [[housemaster]] position there.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=13250|title=Highton, Henry|first=Peter|last=Osborne}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://archive.org/stream/collectedmathema01smituoft#page/n21/mode/2up | title=Biographical sketch | work=The Collected Mathematical Works of Henry John Stephen Smith | editor-first=J. W. L. | editor-last=Glaisher | year=1894 | access-date=27 November 2012 | publisher=Oxford Clarendon Press }}</ref>

At 19 he won an entrance scholarship to [[Balliol College, Oxford]]. He graduated in 1849 with high honours in both mathematics and classics. Smith was fluent in French having spent holidays in [[France]], and he took classes in mathematics at the [[Collège de Sorbonne|Sorbonne]] in Paris during the 1846–7 academic year. He was unmarried and lived with his mother until her death in 1857. He then brought his sister, Eleanor Smith, to live with him as housekeeper at St Giles.<ref name="auto"/>

[[File:Henry John Stephen Smith.jpg|thumb|265px|Bust on display in the [[Oxford University Museum]].]]
Smith remained at Balliol College as a mathematics tutor following his graduation in 1849 and was soon promoted to [[Fellow (college)|Fellow]] status.

In 1861, he was promoted to the [[Savilian Chair of Geometry]] at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]]. In 1873, he was made the beneficiary of a fellowship at [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]], and gave up teaching at Balliol.

In 1874 he became Keeper of the University Museum and moved (with his sister) to the Keeper's House on South Parks Road in Oxford.<ref name="auto"/>

On account of his ability as a man of affairs, Smith was in demand for academic administrative and committee work: he was [[Keeper (museum)|Keeper]] of the [[Oxford University Museum]]; a Mathematical Examiner for the [[University of London]]; a member of a Royal Commission to review scientific education practice; a member of the commission to reform [[University of Oxford]] governance; chairman of the committee of scientists overseeing the [[Meteorological Office]]; twice president of the [[London Mathematical Society]]; etc.

He died in Oxford on 9 February 1883. He is buried in [[St Sepulchre's Cemetery]] in Oxford.