George Smith (Bishop of Victoria)

George Smith
175px Anglican bishop of Hong Kong
Born	June 19, 1815 Wellington, Somerset, England
Died	Blackheath, Kent, England

George Smith (Chinese: 施美夫; 19 June 1815 – 14 December 1871) was a missionary in China and the Anglican bishop of Victoria (Hong Kong) from 1849 to 1865, the first of this newly established diocese.

Smith was born in Wellington, Somerset on 19 June 1815. He obtained a BA in classics from Oxford in 1837 (and an MA in 1843 and DD in 1849) and was ordained as a deacon in 1839 and a priest in 1840 in the Church of England. He rapidly became involved in the Church Missionary Society and he and the Revd T McClatchie arrived in Shanghai on 25 September 1844 to establish a mission. Poor health forced an early return to England, but Smith's Narrative of his period in China was published in 1847.

Smith worked hard to rise money for further missionary work in China, and in 1849 was made bishop of the new diocese of Victoria (Hong Kong) and warden of the newly founded St Paul's Missionary College (see St. Paul's College). With his new wife Lydia, née Brandram, Smith arrived in Hong Kong on 29 March 1850 and threw himself into missionary and educational work. He learned Mandarin, becoming sufficiently fluent to conduct services in it.

Smith was also responsible for missionary work in China and Japan. A weak constitution limited this work, but he nevertheless visited Japan (1860), the Ryukyu islands (1850), India and Ceylon (1852–1853), Australia (1859), and elsewhere, partly to work for emigrants from China.

Smith left Hong Kong for the last time in 1864, retiring from the bishopric the next year. He died in his house at Blackheath (then in Kent, now in London), on 14 December 1871 after a short illness.

Books by Smith

• Lewchew and the Lewchewans: Being a narrative of a visit to Lewchew or Loo Choo, in October, 1850. London, 1853. About the Ryukyu Islands. (Also available here.)
• Our national relations with China: Being two speeches delivered in Exeter Hall and in the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester. London, 1857.
• Smith, George (1847). A narrative of an exploratory visit to each of the consular cities of China, and to the islands of Hong Kong and Chusan, in behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in the years 1844, 1845, 1846. London: Seeley. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." ]

Sources

• Bickley, Gillian. "George Smith (1815–1871)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 51:124–125.

External links

• An engraving of Smith at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

References

Religious titles
Preceded by No predecessor	Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong 1849-1867	Succeeded by Charles Richard Alford
Academic offices
Preceded by Rev. Vincent John Stanton (Founder)	Principal and Warden of St. Paul's College, Hong Kong 1851–1864	Succeeded by Charles Richard Alford