Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, is one of the most private and secretive businesses in the UK – its reclusive owner Humphrey Smith rarely spoke to the media and ran a unique brewing empire rooted in 1950s pub tradition

The half-mast Union flag atop The Old Brewery provided the sole indication at the notoriously tight-lipped Samuel Smith organisation that its reclusive proprietor had passed away.

It was flying beside the 140ft (43m) chimney, which dominates the centre of Tadcaster, situated just a couple of hundred metres from its marginally taller counterpart at the competing John Smith’s brewery.

While Heineken-owned John Smith’s has long been absorbed into the global corporate brewing industry, Eton-educated Humphrey Smith devoted the past 60 years to ensuring Sam Smith’s became synonymous with family-run traditional beer-making anchored in a vision of pub culture from the 1950s.

The company’s website declares: “Our pubs are havens from the digital world – there are no TVs or background music. The use of mobile phones, laptops and other tech is not allowed in our pubs. Friendly pub conversation is encouraged (no swearing! ) together with the responsible enjoyment of our beers.”

Numerous accounts exist of Smith arriving in person to reprimand both customers and landlords, including an episode at a pub in Sheffield in 2020 when a couple claimed they were dismissed after they couldn’t serve his preferred pudding. In 2011, campaigners organised a “kiss-in” when a Sam Smith’s pub in Soho, central London, purportedly ejected two men for a public display of affection.

Mr Smith himself never granted interviews to the press and his company maintained the same approach. His appetite for confidentiality – particularly surrounding his wealth and commercial affairs – meant that Samuel Smith’s is amongst a tiny minority of British enterprises not to submit public financial accounts.

Mr Smith transformed the firm into a private unlimited company in 1982, rendering it exempt from filing accounts or disclosing its assets, though this structure also means all owners bear personal liability for its debts.

The company’s website proudly boasts that its pubs exclusively stock Sam Smith’s beer and cider, with all other produce sourced locally. A post on a real ale enthusiasts’ page described Smith as “an absolute titan of the British brewing world”.

It read: “Love him or hate him for his strict rules banning smartphones, tablets, music, and even swearing, he ran his pubs entirely his own way to preserve the classic, tech-free British pubs experience. Whether you cherished the peace or found the rules baffling, there is no denying his massive impact on our pub heritage.”

York Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) chairman Christopher Tregellis commented: “It is difficult to differentiate between him as a man and the business itself. The two seem to have been closely aligned.

“The business had a reputation as being very traditional and sometimes arbitrary. They seemed prepared to keep large parts of their pub estate empty and unused and would often close pubs at very short notice, depriving local customers of community assets without them knowing why.

“Their pubs are known as purveyors of fairly priced beer and they have a commitment to cask ale which is obviously valued by Camra. The passing of Mr Smith presents the brewery with an opportunity to modernise its approach whilst preserving its good aspects, and we hope to see this happen.”