Humphrey Smith, the notoriously strict brewery boss who banned mobile phones, music and bad language from his pubs, is reported to have died aged 81.
The former chairman of Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery was one of the most controversial figures in the British pub trade.
To admirers, he was a determined guardian of the traditional public house – protecting historic interiors and the lost art of conversation from the relentless march of smartphones and fruit machines.
To critics, he was an uncompromising and sometimes fearsome figure whose rigid rules left some landlords terrified.
Smith, who was born on December 17, 1944, headed the family
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