William Charles Smith was an English musicologist who specialized in musical bibliographies. His particular area of interest was 17th and 18th century musical figures that were active in England. Considered an authority on the life and works of George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

, he notably published several books on the famous composer. Smith also had a large private collection of Handel works, some of them original manuscripts. He was also interested in chronicling the work of English music engravers and publishers of the period.

Smith was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. From 1900 to 1944 he was on staff of the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

, serving as Assistant Keeper of Printed Books from 1920 – 1944. He died in Bromley

Bromley

Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

in 1972 at the age of 91.

Sources

• New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
• Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, [vol. # 17].