No relation....but inventors of ISBN

In 1792, Henry Walton Smith was a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. After his death, the business was valued at £1,280. In 1846 the firm became W H Smith & Son under the leadership of his son and grandson - both William Henry Smith. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations.

WH Smith is buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London, and uniquely his grave is owned and maintained by the WH Smith company and not the cemetery itself.

In 1966, W H Smith originated a 9-digit code for uniquely referencing books, called Standard Book Numbering or SBN. It was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970, and was used until 1974, when it became the ISBN scheme.