George Smith (bishop)

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For other persons named George Smith, see George Smith (disambiguation).

George Smith (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. He rapidly became involved in the Church Missionary Society and arrived in Hong Kong on 25 September 1844 as one of the first two Church of England missionaries to China. 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 (1852–3), 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.

[edit] Books by Smith

China, her future and her past: Being a charge delivered to the Anglican clergy in Trinity Church, Shanghae, on October 20, 1853. London, 1854.
A narrative of an exploratory visit to each of the consular cities of China, and to the islands of Hong Kong and Chusan: On behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in the years 1844, 1845, 1846. London, 1847.
Ten weeks in Japan. London, 1861.
The case of our West-African cruisers and West-African settlements fairly considered. London, 1848.
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. (Also available here.)