Guy Vernon Smith NPG details (15 October 188011 June 1957) was a Church of England clergyman who served as Bishop of Leicester from 1940 to 1953.
Smith was educated at WinchesterWho was Who 1897–1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 and New College, Oxford. Following in the footsteps of his father, a King's Counsel, Smith was called to the Bar in 1905 but then decided on a career move from Law to the Church of England He was ordained in 1907, was a curate in Romford and, from 1909 to 1911, was Chaplain of Oxford House, Bethnal Green. This was 'like a Christian Welfare Society' with 1500 men and 500 boys in clubs, open every night.Unpublished autobiography of Vernon Smith held at Museum of Army Chaplaincy So began his long association with Arthur Winnington-Ingram, the dynamic Bishop of London. He became Resident Chaplain to the Bishop, and supported the Bishop noted for his jingoistic promotion of British commitment to the Great War.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004, article by Jeremy Morris Winnington-Ingram was a renowned preacher who attracted massive publicity, and he toured the Western Front in 1914 with Smith who wrote a book about the visit.'Bishop of London's Visit to the Front' by G.V. Smith, Longman's 1915 Smith himself then served on the Western Front with the Post Office Rifles, distinguishing himself at Bullecourt in June, 1917, winning a Military Cross - the citation for which read:'What did you do in the Great War, Bishop?' by Tom Scherb, Stand To!, number 95, Western Front Association
Smith caught trench nephritis and spent six months in hospital in England. He was, however, fit enough to accompany Winnington-Ingram on a tour of Greece, Salonica, Malta and Rome. He ended the War as a chaplain at Aldershot and then took up an appointment as Rector of Hackney. From 1925 to 1929 he was Archdeacon of Colombo but returned to London at the behest of Winnington-Ingram to be Suffragan Bishop of Willesden. He was consecrated a bishop on the Feast of St James 1929 (25 July), at St Paul's Cathedral by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury. Once again, Smith provided admirable support for Winnington-Ingram whose powers were waning and who did not resign until 1939 when he was in his eighties. The new Bishop of London was Geoffrey Fisher who proposed Smith for the vacant see at Leicester. Although Lang regarded Smith as 'old maidish', he supported Smith's candidature, and Smith was appointed to Leicester in 1940.TNA PREM5/289 Smith enjoyed a reputation in Leicester as a 'saintly man',Lambeth Palace Library, Fisher Papers, 1946 'with a patient pastoral care and administrative wisdom'.Leicester Diocesan Chronicle, October 1956 He retired in 1953. He has a commemorative plaque in Leicester Cathedral. References