Percy Smythe, 8th Viscount Strangford

Percy Ellen Algernon Frederick William Sydney Smythe, 8th Viscount Strangford (26 November 1825[1] – 9 January 1869) was a British nobleman and man of letters.[2]

The Right Honourable

The Viscount Strangford
Born
Percy Ellen Algernon Frederick William Sydney Smythe

26 November 1825
St Petersburg, Russia
Died9 January 1869 (1869-01-10) (aged 43)
NationalityBritish
EducationHarrow School
Alma materMerton College
Spouse
​
(m. 1862)​
Relatives7th Viscount Strangford (brother)
Lionel Percy Smythe (half-brother)
Sir John Burke (uncle)

Early life

He was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the son of the 6th Viscount Strangford, the British Ambassador, Ottoman Turkey, Sweden, and Portugal. During all his earlier years, Percy Smythe was nearly blind, in consequence, it was believed, of his mother having suffered hardship on a journey up the Baltic Sea in wintry weather shortly before his birth.[3]

His education began at Harrow School, whence he went to Merton College, Oxford. He excelled as a linguist, and was nominated by the vice-chancellor of Oxford in 1845 as a student-attache at Constantinople.[3]

Career

While at Constantinople, where he served under Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Smythe gained a mastery not only of Turkish and its dialects, but of the forms of modern Greek. He already had a good knowledge both of Persian and Arabic before going east. It was the study of Ottoman history that led him to the languages of the Balkan peninsula.[3]

On succeeding his brother as Viscount Strangford in 1857 he continued to live in Constantinople, immersed in cultural studies. At length, however, he returned to England and wrote a good deal, sometimes in the Saturday Review, sometimes in the Quarterly Review, and often in the Pall Mall Gazette. A rather severe review in the first of these, of the Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines of Emily Anne Beaufort (1826–1887), led to the marriage of the reviewer and the author.[3][4]

Lord Strangford wrote the final chapter, "Chaos", in his wife's book on the Eastern Shores of the Adriatic.[5] It gained him a reputation with students of foreign politics.[3]

Percy Smythe was president of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1861–64 and 1867–69.

Personal life

In 1862, Smythe was married to the illustrator and writer, Emily Anne Beaufort (1826–1887), the daughter of Sir Francis Beaufort.[6]

On his death in 1869 his titles became extinct. A Selection from the Writings of Viscount Strangford on Political, Geographical and Social Subjects was edited by his widow and published in 1869.[7] His Original Letters and Papers upon Philology and Kindred Subjects were also edited by Lady Strangford (1878).[8][3]

Honours

The future national poet of Bulgaria, Ivan Vazov, eulogises his name and deeds in several of his poems written in 1876, following the April uprising and the Turkish atrocities in Rumelia, including one dedicated to his wife, Lady Strangford.

The Australian botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller named the species of flowering plant Goodenia strangfordii in his honour.[9][10]

References
  1. Murchison, Roderick Impey (1868), "Obituary of Lord Strangford (Address to the Royal Geographical Society)", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 13 (4): 260–263, doi:10.2307/1799007, JSTOR 1799007 – via Internet Archive
  2. See Fonblanque, E.B. (1877). Lives of the Lords Strangford, with their Ancestors and Contemporaries through Ten Generations (1 ed.). London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin. pp. 247–294. Retrieved 13 December 2014 – via Internet Archive.
  3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Strangford, Viscount s.v. Percy Ellen Frederick William Sydney Smythe". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 983.
  4. Baigent, Elizabeth. "Smythe , Emily Anne, Viscountess Strangford (bap. 1826, d. 1887)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25963. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. See Viscountess Strangford (1864). Eastern Shores of the Adriatic (1 ed.). London: Robert Bentley. Retrieved 10 December 2014. via Internet Archive
  6. Logan, Deborah Anna (2015). Memorials of Harriet Martineau by Maria Weston Chapman. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 434. ISBN 9781611462166. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  7. See Viscountess Strangford, ed. (1869). A Selection from the Writings of Viscount Strangford on Political, Geographical and Social Subjects. Vol. I (1 ed.). London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 9 April 2016. via Internet Archive. Viscountess Strangford, ed. (1869). A Selection from the Writings of Viscount Strangford on Political, Geographical and Social Subjects. Vol. II (1 ed.). London: Richard Bentley. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  8. See Viscountess Strangford, ed. (1878). Original Letters and Papers of the late Viscount Strangford upon Philology and Kindred Subjects (1 ed.). London: Trübner. Retrieved 10 December 2014. via Internet Archive
  9. von Mueller, Ferdinand (1867). Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae. Vol. 6. Melbourne: Victorian Government Printer. p. 11. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  10. Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 314. ISBN 9780958034180.
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