Peter Kerr-Smiley

Who was Peter Kerr-Smiley?

Peter Kerr Kerr-Smiley was a Northern Irish Member of Parliament.

He was born at Larne as Peter Kerr Smiley, the second son of Sir Hugh Smiley, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was a Lieutenant in the 21st Lancers, and from 1901 to 1902 served on the staff during the South African War. He resigned his commission in 1905, but later reached the rank of Major in the 14th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

In 1905 he adopted the surname of Kerr-Smiley, and the same year married Maud Simpson, daughter of Ernest L. Simpson, a British shipbuilder, and sister of Ernest Aldrich Simpson. They had two children:

Cyril Hugh Kerr-Smiley

Elizabeth Maud Kerr-Smiley

Kerr-Smiley was a Unionist in politics, and Chairman of the Belfast newspaper The Northern Whig. He unsuccessfully stood for South Down at the General Election of 1906, but was elected for North Antrim in January 1910 and represented the constituency until 1922.

Kerr-Smiley's London house was at 31 Belgrave Square, and he was a member of the Carlton Club, the Marlborough Club and the Cavalry Club.