Mrs. Aimee Watt Smyth

Aimee Evans Watt Smyth, née Massy, was born circa 1863 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, to Henry and Maria Massy. She had three siblings: Annie, Maud, and Perry Massy. In 1885, Aimee married Thomas Watt Smyth, a judge of the High Court of Punjab, a member of the Bengal Civil Service, and the author of the handbook Acts and Regulations Applicable to the Punjab.

Watt Smyth was a member of the Society of Women Journalists from 1903 to 1911. She was a councilmember from 1904 to 1911, served as Honorary Treasurer from 1905 to 1907, and was appointed a vice president of the organization from 1908 to 1911. She published three books: Physical Deterioration, Its Causes and the Cure (1904), which received mixed reviews; A Text-Book of the Principles of Hygiene based on Physiology, for the use of school teachers (1905); and a travelogue, Austria, “the Land of Smiles”—and Tears (1935). Her work primarily addressed child welfare, public health, British nationalism, and critiques of societal deterioration. She was awarded the First Class Order of the Shefakat by the Turkish Sultan for her literary contributions in 1904.

Beyond her journalism career, Watt Smyth served as the Honorary Secretary for the Women’s Aerial League, an organization established in 1909 to “encourage and stimulate the invention of aerial craft” and “spread information showing the vital importance to the British Empire of aerial supremacy.”

Watt Smyth died on January 12, 1943, at the age of 79.