William Lethbridge was a lawyer in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. When bookseller W H Smith

W H Smith

WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...

 owner William Henry Smith II decided to become involved in politics in 1864, he enlisted Lethbridge as a managing partner.

Lethbridge was the first president of North Western Coal and Navigation Company

North Western Coal and Navigation Company

The North Western Coal and Navigation Company also known as Alberta Coal and Railway Company, was a coal mining company formed in 1882 by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation...

, a mining company based out of Lethbridge

Lethbridge

Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, in 1882. The city of Lethbridge was named after him by Alexander Tilloch Galt

Alexander Tilloch Galt

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...

 in an effort to convince him to invest in the new company. Ironically, Lethbridge actually never came to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.