George Latimer Apperson (1857-1937) was a school inspector and man of letters. He was editor of The Antiquary from 1889-1915, and a major contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, both submitting large numbers of quotations and serving as sub-editor for parts. Apperson was created Companion of the Imperial Service Order in 1903 for his service in the Scottish Education Department within the Scottish Office at Whitehall. His publications include Bygone London Life: Pictures from a Vanished Past (1903), Gleanings After Time: Chapters in Social and Domestic History (1907), The Social History of Smoking (1914), English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: A Historical Dictionary (1929), and A Jane Austen Dictionary (1932). His Social History of Smoking is the first attempt to write the history of smoking in Britain strictly from the social point of view, in which Apperson confines himself to describing the changes in the attitude of society towards smoking, whilst including such historical and social sidelights as serve to illuminate that theme.