▶Date of birth:   11 August 1847       Place of birth: Bermondsey, London

▶Father:  Thomas Smith     Mother:  Harriet Hogg

▶Spouse(s):  Marian Jane McLaren      Date(s) of marriage:  8 July 1879     Place(s) of marriage: St Paul’s Church, Cheltenham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: The Revd. Percival Smith served mostly in the south of England before moving to Harborne, Birmingham and then Cheltenham, as the curate-in-Charge of Holy Trinity; he spend much of his later life officiating abroad, for the sake of his health. Smith was born in Bermondsey, London, in 1847, the eldest son of the Revd. Thomas Smith, of East Harborne, Staffordshire, and his wife Harriet (née Hogg). He lived with his parents at Weston House, Cambridge, in 1851, and by 1861 the family resided in Harborne. Smith attended Harrow School 1863-6, before matriculating at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1866, BA 1872, MA 1891.

He took holy orders and was ordained Deacon in 1874, and then Priest (both London) in 1875. In 1874 he was licensed Curate of St David’s, Islington, moving in 1876 to East Grinstead in Sussex. Later that year he was presented as Vicar of Hammerwood, Sussex 1876-77, before assuming the family living as Vicar of St John’s, East Harborne, Birmingham 1877-84. In 1879 he married Marian Jane, daughter of merchant John Cunningham McLaren, of 41 Clarence Square, Pittville, and the sister of Mrs J. B. Winterbotham, at St Paul’s Church in Cheltenham.

After serving for seven years at East Harborne he then exchanged his living with the Revd. John Hall Shaw, coming to Holy Trinity, Cheltenham as Curate in Charge, where he remained until 1894; between 1885 and 1890 his household resided at 1 Easton Villas (now 12 Albert Road), Pittville, and from 1891 until 1894 at the newly refurbished Holy Trinity Vicarage at Camden House, Clarence Square. At Holy Trinity he sat on the Council of the Girls’ High School, chaired the Committee for the Female Refuge and Home in Winchcombe Street, and made further progress with the scheme to buy out private pews, initiated by his predecessor and completed four years after Smith’s departure; Smith raised £4,000 towards this objective, which also endowed the Mission Room and parish room. The Vicarage was acquired through a legacy of Miss Susan Mary Stokes, of Tyndale, Clarence Square, who died in 1887; an earlier gift from Miss Stokes in 1886 allowed Smith to appoint a Scripture Reader and a Bible Woman.

He retired from Holy Trinity in 1894, and was appointed Minister of Portman Chapel in Westminster, moving in 1895 to become Vicar of St Margaret’s, Ipswich until 1899. But Smith was never in the best of health, and from this point he sought clerical engagements abroad; from 1900-1 served as Chaplain of Les Avants, Montreux, Switzerland. In 1901 he was back in Cheltenham in retirement, but still providing voluntary assistance at Holy Trinity and maintaining his interest in the Female Refuge (where he performed secretarial duties). Between 1903 and 1904 he was again employed abroad, as Chaplain of Nervi, Genoa. Smith died in Cheltenham, at his home, Littlecote on Hewlett Road, and was survived by his wife and daughter. His estate at death was sworn at just over £9,300 for probate.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   (1) East Harborne, Staffordshire; (2) Ipswich     Moved from Pittville to: (1) Westminster; (2) (deceased)

▶Date of death:  3 January 1909      Place of death: Littlecote, Hewlett Road, Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:   7 January 1909      Place of burial: Weston-super-Mare

▶Notes:        ID: 2361

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden