PETERHOUSE NOSTALGIA

... MEMORIES ...

William Smith (Staff 1957 - 1958)

William Smith, the First Bursar of Peterhouse, was born in Salisbury in 1912 and educated at Prince Edward School. From 1929 until 1933 he served as cashier for the Shell Company in Salisbury, following which he spent a year as Clerk of the Court at the Salisbury Magistrates Court. From 1935 to 1936 he was Water Court Registrar in the High Court. In 1937 he was appointed Private Secretary to Lord Malvern (then Sir Godfrey Huggins) following which he was commissioned in 1940 in the Dorset Regiment and saw service in France. He escaped at Dunkirk and later joined the remnants of his Regiment in England. He subsequently was appointed to the War Office Military Mission in North Africa and for the last two years of the war served on the staff of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Mr Smith was awarded the MBE in 1947.

Returning to Salisbury after the war, Mr Smith became local secretary of the British South Africa Company and in 1957 he became Bursar at Peterhouse. He tragedy died in November 1958 leaving his widow and four children and was buried in the Peterhouse graveyard.

For the ten years prior to his appointment he had been secretary to the Ruzawi group of schools and was a governor of Springvale from its inception. His contribution to the establishment of Peterhouse was invaluable.