25 December 1897/1919        W.K. Simms and E.T. Smith

It is a strange coincidence that partners in a business should both die on Christmas day albeit twenty-two years apart. William Knox Simms who died in 1897 was a brewer, firstly at the Pirie Street Brewery, then Halifax Street Brewery and in 1861 took over the West End in Hindley Street. He served on the City Council for a term and was MHA for twelve years and MLC for seven years. He had a keen interest in horse racing and was Chairman of the SAJC in 1867. In 1892 he presented 100 sovereigns for the Adelaide Cup.

Sir E.T. Smith had a similar career. In 1860 he went into partnership with Edward Logue of Logue’s Brewery, Kent Town which he continued to run after Logue’s death in 1865 until 1876 when he built the Kent Town Brewery. In 1871 he was elected MHA and served for twenty-two years and continued as MLC for a further nine years. Sir Edwin was Mayor of Kensington and Norwood and later Mayor of Adelaide for several terms. He was also a keen sportsman and for over thirty years was President of the SA Cricket Association. He presented the city with the statue of Queen Victoria.

In 1888 the two men amalgamated their businesses to form the SA Brewing Company. 

Simms: Alison Painter, research for ADB
mith: Eric Gunton, Gracious Houses of Colonial Adelaide, Adelaide, 1893, pp.1-2.