George Smith (bishop of Victoria)

George Smith (Chinese: 施美夫; 19 June 1815 – 14 December 1871) was a missionary in China and the Bishop of Victoria (the Anglican bishop in 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 Bachelor of Arts (BA) in classics from Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1837 (and a Master of Arts {MA Cantab} in 1843 and Doctor of Divinity {DD} in 1849) and was ordained in the Church of England. He was made deacon on 20 October 1839 by George Davys, Bishop of Peterborough and ordained priest in July 1840 by Charles Longley, Bishop of Ripon.[1] He rapidly became involved in the Church Missionary Society and he and fellow priest Thomas McClatchie arrived in Shanghai on 25 September 1844 to establish a mission.[2] Poor health forced an early return to England, but Smith's Narrative of his period in China was published in 1847.

George Smith
Bishop of Victoria
Diocese	Victoria (Hong Kong)
In office	1849–1865 (retired)
Successor	Charles Alford
Other post(s)	Warden, St Paul's Missionary College, Hong Kong
Orders
Ordination	1839 (deacon); 1840 (priest)
Consecration	29 May 1849 by John Bird Sumner
Personal details
Born	(1815-06-19)19 June 1815 Wellington, Somerset, Great Britain
Died	14 December 1871(1871-12-14) (aged 56) Blackheath, Kent, Great Britain
Denomination	Anglican

Smith worked hard to raise 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). He was consecrated a bishop on 29 May 1849 at Canterbury Cathedral,[3] by John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury.[4] 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 early the next year.[5] He had arrived back in Britain by St Peter's Day (29 June 1864), when he presented Charles Bromby for consecration as a bishop at Canterbury Cathedral.[6] Over the following years, he occasionally assisted successive Bishops of Winchester (Sumner and Wilberforce at least) in north Surrey (what is now South London).[7] He died in his house at Blackheath (then in Kent, now in Greater London), on 14 December 1871 after a short illness.