Charles Smyth

On the south wall of St Margaret's church Westminster is an oval tablet to former Rector and Canon of Westminster Charles Hugh Egerton Smyth. This was cut by David Kindersley and unveiled on 31st March 1992 by Bishop Kenneth Riches, representing Corpus Christi College Cambridge where Smyth had been educated and was Dean of Chapel. The inscription reads:

Remember Charles Smyth who served this church 1946-1956 +

Canon Smyth was born in China on 31st March 1903, son of medical missionary Richard Smyth. After education at Repton and Cambridge he taught briefly at Harvard but returned to England and was ordained in 1929. He served as curate at Islington and Chelsea and St Giles, Cambridge, He was Hon. Canon of Derby cathedral. Also an author, his well known works are Cranmer and the English Reformation, Life of Archbishop Garbett and Church and Parish. In 1934 he married Violet Copland (d.1994) but they had no children. He was rector until his resignation in 1956. He lived at 20 Dean's Yard, then the rectory. From the 1920s he was a reviewer for the Church Times. He died on 29th October 1987 and his funeral was held at St Margaret's.

Recollections of him were printed in the Westminster Abbey Chorister magazine Summer 1996 and Summer 1997.