Hastings Lees-Smith - Family Background

Family Background

Lees-Smith was from an Army family; his father was a Major in the Royal Artillery, and he was born in British India. He was educated Aldenham School, as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Queen's College, Oxford. Rejecting a military career for himself he chose academia and was appointed as a Lecturer in Public Administration at the London School of Economics in 1906; he remained there throughout his political career. He was also Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ruskin College, Oxford from 1907 to 1909. He resigned on appointment as Professor of Public Administration at the University of Bristol. In 1909 he went on an extended tour of India to lecture at Bombay on economics and advise on economics teaching; as a result of his experiences he wrote Studies in Indian Economics.