Charles Smyth

Charles Hugh Egerton Smyth (31 March 1903 – 29 October 1987) was a British ecclesiastical historian and an Anglican minister who served as canon of Westminster Abbey from 1946 until 1956. He was born in Ningpo, China and his father, Richard Smyth, was a medical missionary for the Church of Ireland. He was then educated at Repton School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was awarded Firsts for both parts of the Historical Tripos and he also won the Thirlwall Medal and the Gladstone Prize. In 1925 he was appointed a Fellow of Corpus Christi College and editor of the Cambridge Review. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant and promising of the younger members of the High Table and was noted, according to The Times, for his "incisive and epigrammatic conversation and for the vigour of his Tory radical opinions". Smyth taught history at Harvard University during 1926–1927. He decided to become a priest and, after his return to Britain, he attended Bath and Wells Theological College. He was ordained deacon in 1929 and to the priesthood in 1930. Smyth then spent the next few years lecturing history at Cambridge before being appointed curate of St Clement's, Barnsbury, Islington in 1933. The next year, he was appointed curate of St Saviour's, Upper Chelsea, which he held until 1936. In 1937 Smyth was elected again as Fellow of Corpus and he also became the dean of the College's chapel. In 1934 Smyth married Violet Copland.