Thomas SMITH

SMITH, THOMAS (b. Leominster, England, 21 Dec 1829; d. Newtown, NSW, 12 Aug 1882). Anglican clergyman.

Son of a Herefordshire wool-buyer, converted c. 1854 after a drunken youth with little education, Smith arrived in Sydney probably in Dec 1856, with letters of recommendation from the Colonial and Continental Church Society. In Dec 1857 Bp Barker (q.v.) licensed him as missioner among the labourers at Blackwattle Swamp, his preaching was so powerful that Barker ordained him (deacon Dec 1858, priest June 1861) without formal clerical qualifications. He built St Barnabas' Church, Sydney (now Broadway), consecrated in 1871 and in 1872 was elected a canon of St Andrew's cathedral.

As incumbent of All Saints' cathedral Bathurst (1873-9) and secretary of the once ailing Church Society, he outshone Bp Marsden (q.v.) as a fundraiser. He founded All Saints' College (1873), extended the cathedral (1874) and opened a railwaymen's church in South Bathurst (1875). In July 1879 he closed his denominational school and preached a violent anti-Catholic sermon which offended orthodox Anglicans and forced him to return to England in Dec. He returned in Feb 1882, but both the administrator of Sydney and Marsden refused to license him and he soon afterwards died of cirrhosis. An obelisk to his memory was erected at St Barnabas', Sydney, which wrongly dates his birth at 1832.

W H Mitchell, Sketch of the life and ministry of the Rev Thomas Smith (Sydney, 1873); Bathurst Times, 28 Aug 1875, 30 July 1879, 4, 9 Feb, 6 Mar 1882; SMH 15 Aug 1882

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