Mexborough and Swinton Times, April 29th, 1932

At Our Service

Mr. B. L. Smith, who is giving up his work at the Manvers Main Colliery where he has been employed for nearly fifty years, is a man with an impressive record of voluntary service to the district, as will be gathered from the simple enumeration printed elsewhere, at the offices he has held and the duties he has discharged in connection with the municipal, social, religious, political philanthropic, and sporting life of the district.

He is an outstanding example of a life devoted to the public welfare while following a humble calling and content for himself and his family with a plain and modest subsidence. The public owes a deep debt of gratitude to such men, a debt rarely acknowledged and indeed not often realised.

The community, especially in districts like ours, is accustomed to such ministrations and it is only when a landmark is reached, a birthday or a retirement – or a death – and stock is taken and a career reviewed, that the public is reminded of the devotion of men and women who might have raised themselves socially and financially by the talents and energies they have chosen instead to bestow on the betterment of the neighbourhood. They are the poorer in pocket, but richer in mind, and happier in recollection.