Ernest was born in Dorset in 1906 to Fanny and Edward Wills,
a gardener. By 1921 the 15 year old Ernest and his family living were on London Road, Pulborough. He was working at
the railway station as a WH Smith’s bookstall assistant. His 21 year old sister Winifred was a buffet attendant for Bertram
& Co at Havant station and his sister Ivy, 18, was a LB&SC Railway booking clerk at Fittleworth station.
In 1935, aged 29, he married Lily Newman and they had two children, likely named Raymond and Eric.
Ernest had become branch manager at the WH Smith’s at Edenbridge station in 1935, where he stayed until
1969. “14 year old Violet Harrison also worked at Edenbridge WH Smith’s before joining the Wrens in
the Second World War. She remembers the newspapers arrived by train and the paper boys sorted them for
delivery.” *
WH Smith & Son began in London in 1792 as a newspaper stall run by Henry Walton Smith, but taken
on by his son William Henry who opened the first W.H. SMITH & SON newsstand at Euston Railway
Station in 1848 with his own son, also called William Henry. They were the first newsagent to distribute
newspapers by rail. Sam Hewitt for The Railway Magazine writes: “From 1837, Smiths began tying up its
own distribution deals with many early railway companies and in February 1848 showed the world what was
possible by chartering a special train to deliver papers containing news of a Government budget speech”.
Thus enabling the UK to develop nationwide press to rival the local newspapers.
233 years after that first stall, Smiths’ could boast 1700 stores in 30 countries.
NOTES/LINKS
* writes Joan Varley in the Eden Valley Heritage newsletter, issue 32, 2018
https://www.whsmithplc.co.uk/about-us/history-heritage
https://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/6311/newspaper-trains-read-all-about-i
