William Lethbridge

William Lethbridge (1825–1901) was a lawyer in England. When bookseller W H Smith owner William Henry Smith II decided to become involved in politics in 1864, he enlisted Lethbridge as a managing partner of WH Smith.¹ He sat for a portrait by Frederick Sandys (1829-1904) in 1882 (see illustration).

Lethbridge was the first president of North Western Coal and Navigation Company, a mining company based out of Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1882. The city of Lethbridge was named after him,¹ by Alexander Tilloch Galt in an effort to convince him to invest in the new company. However, Lethbridge never went to Canada.