Smith, Sir James John Joynton, 1858 – 1943

Sir Joynton Smith (1858-1943), was baptised James John Smith, son of James and Jane Smith of London. He arrived in New Zealand in 1874 working as a cook on a ship. He worked in hotels and on ships in New Zealand before returning to England in 1886 where he gambled away his savings before returning to New Zealand on the ship Kaikoura. In about 1890 Smith arrived in Sydney. By 1896 he was known as Joynton Smith and was running the Imperial Arcade Hotel in Sydney, eventually buying the hotel and the arcade. He acquired further hotels and leased and operated hotels in the Blue Mountains. Smith was interested in sport and was involved in racing and football.

In 1901 Smith stood unsuccessfully for the NSW parliament seat of Moruya. He was nominated to the NSW Legislative Council in 1912; retiring in 1934. From 1916 to 1918 he was an alderman of the Sydney Municipal Council and was elected Lord Mayor in 1917. In 1919 he launched the newspaper Smith's Weekly and his company Smith's Newspapers Ltd. published the Daily Guardian from 1923 and the Sunday Guardian from 1929.