John Louis Bullôt Smith. My father. The Louis Bullôt comes from his mothers side, Huguenots who fled France for England during the Catholic purges of protestants.
John Smith managed the family firm, W. E. Smith Engineering Pty. Ltd. after his father, Walter Edmond, retired in the early 1960s due to mustard gas, yellow cross gas, suffered during a gas attack in 1917 on the Western Front.
Walter was blinded for six weeks then recovered well enough at the time. He went on to found the family business in 1922 then built it up to a heavy engineering firm of about 150 staff. But his eyesight worsened with age. He had to relinquish general management in the early 1960s, then my father took over.
The family sport was waters king. The family firm's accountant, Keith Richards, was the former accountant of De Havilland Marine in Sydney which had an agreement with C.W.F Hamilton & Co. in Christchurch New Zealand to market Hamilton jet boats in Australia. W.E. Smith took over from De Havilland with a 50:50 joint venture to make and sell Hamilton jet boats in Australia.
While the family firm was in Sydney, John Smith battled Lane Cove Council over planning permission for a new factory. He submitted the plans to the local council then received a phone call from the mayor's lawyer. Permission could be granted in three weeks on payment of £3,000 otherwise it would take two years. The lawyer gave my father the mayor's bank account number. Permission wasn't granted for two years.
As mayor of Coffs Harbour after the family firm moved there and he retired, he battled corrupt land developers and corrupt companies bidding on infrastructure.
And a corrupt NSW state parliament.
Due to pressure from the Greens, it passed legislation preventing the council finishing sewage treatment renovations, and forcing a more expensive solution with no befit. But the Greens were shocked at the idea of highly-treated poo being pumped far out to sea. The trench for the outfall had (in undue haste) already been dug.The council had won all the legal challenges.
At the time, Robert Webster, one on my classmates at Newington, was the state Minister for Planning. During the 1989 Class of '69 twenty-year reunion I mentioned my father was Coffs mayor, and Webster, in horror, cried:
"Oh my god, you're Coffs Mayor, John Smith's son?!!"