Yorkshire businessman and brewer Humphrey Smith has died at the age of 81.
Smith was the owner and chairman of Tadcaster-based Sam Smith’s Brewery, which became well known for its strict pub policies, including bans on smartphones, children, swearing, and music in many of its pubs across the country.
Born on 17 December 1944, Smith led the family brewery, which was established in 1758. Regarded as Yorkshire’s oldest brewery, Samuel Smith’s operates more than 200 pubs across the United Kingdom.
The York Press reports that the 81-year-old’s role at the brewery in recent years “has also been the subject of much speculation”, with reports suggesting he had been seriously unwell for some time. However, the Smith family is known for being fiercely private, and Samuel Smith’s Brewery has a long-standing policy of not speaking to the media.
Samuel Smith’s Brewery has become one of Britain’s most distinctive pub companies, operating more than 200 pubs across the UK, many of them housed in historic buildings. The brewery has built a reputation for preserving traditional pubs, with many retaining original Victorian interiors, open fires, wooden furnishings and hand-pulled ales brewed exclusively in Tadcaster.
Facebook page, British Pubs wrote: “An absolute titan of the British brewing world has passed away. Humphrey Smith, the fiercely independent owner of Tadcaster’s Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery, has died at the age of 81. Love or hate his strict rules—from banning mobile phones to keeping TVs out of his pubs—there is no denying he shaped the British pub landscape like few others. What are your memories of visiting a Sam Smith’s pub?”
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