Sir William Reardon Smith, 1st Baronet (7 August 1856 – 23 December 1935) was an English shipowner and philanthropist. Early life Reardon Smith was born in Appledore, Devon, the youngest son of Thomas Reardon Smith, a sailing ship captain, and his wife Elizabeth (née Green; died January 1906). After her husband and eldest son Philip Green Smith were lost at sea when the schooner Hazard sank off the coast of South Wales in October 1859, his mother was forced to bring up her surviving eight children alone on her income as a dressmaker. Reardon Smith was educated at the Wesleyan School in Appledore. Sea service Reardon Smith went to sea at the age of 12, joining the crew of the 32-ton wooden sloop Unity as a cabin boy and served from August to December 1870. He then moved to the 37-ton sloop Seraphina in Spring 1871, the 38-ton polacca brigantine Joe Abraham, from July to December 1871, the 965-ton Ocean Pearl, from February to July 1872, and the 460-ton Scout. Service on other ships followed during which he gained experience in the coasting trades of the Bristol Channel as well as carrying railway lines to the US and copper ore from Chile. He climbed steadily through the ranks, reaching second mate by the age of 20 (after passing his examination on 11 August 1876) and then later became first mate of the barque May owned by Glasgow-based Hugh Hogarth in 1878. He remained with Hogarth for eighteen years, passing his master mariner's examination in Plymouth on 6 June 1879 and being sufficiently trusted by Hogarth to superintend the building of three of his ships. For his last four years at sea, Reardon Smith forsook Hogarth for the Cardiff-based Anning Brothers who had Devon connections and lastly William J. Tatem, who had been born in Appledore. Among the sailing and steam ships he commanded were the Baron Douglas (June 1890 to April 1892), Baron Elibank (June 1890 to April 1892), Baron Belhaven (November 1894 to October 1896), Starcross (November 1896 to July 1897), Lady Lewis (July 1897 to April 1899, February to December 1900)) and Shandon (June 1899 to February 1900). Relocation to Cardiff He left the sea in December 1900 and joined his wife Ellen, who had recently relocated the family home from Appledore to Cardiff. Once settled in Cardiff, he entered into a partnership with William Seager, a Cardiff