Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal immortalised as the "Cheeryble Brothers" in Charles Dickens' book, Nicholas Nickleby. Donald's mother was the sister of the Canadian explorer John Stuart, partner of the North West Company who rose to become Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Smith was educated at Anderson's Free School and on leaving at age sixteen he was apprenticed to become a lawyer in the offices of Robert Watson, Town Clerk of Forres. By the age of eighteen, Smith chose another career path: offered entry into mercantile life at Manchester, and a career in the Indian Civil Service, his choice was to pattern himself
The Charles Dickens School The Charles Dickens School The Charles Dickens School is a mixed high school and sixth form, located in Broadstairs in the English county of Kent. The school is named after Charles Dickens, the 19th century writer and social critic. It is a foundation school administered by Kent County Council, which coordinates admissions to the school. The Charles Dickens School has a non-selective intake, but does have specialisms in mathematics and computing. As part of this the school participates in the Faulkes Telescope Project. The Charles Dickens School offers GCSEs and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils, while students in