Neville Langford-Smith

LANGFORD-SMITH, NEVILLE (b. Sydney, NSW,1910, d. Castle Hill, NSW, 26 Oct 1993). Anglican missionary bishop in East Africa.

The son of SE Langford-Smith (q.v.) and brother of Keith Langford-Smith (q.v.), Neville Langford-Smith was educated at Trinity Grammar School and the University of Sydney (BA, MA). In 1932 he went to East Africa to join Bp Chambers (q.v.) his former school headmaster. In the diocese of Central Tanganyika he supervised the establishment of ten bush schools between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria.

While on home leave in 1937 he was accepted as a full missionary of CMS, and was ordained. He m. Vera Dobson, a teacher with CMS at Mvumi Girl's School. On their return to Africa, Langford-Smith was appointed headmaster of Dodoma Boys School and subsequently of Marangu Teachers Training College and Arusha School.

In 1949 he moved from Tanganyika to Kenya as supervisor of schools in the Kikuyu area, remaining there throughout the Mau Mau rising. It was a period of ministry amid hostility and at times danger.

Made archdeacon in Nairobi in 1955, in 1961 he was appointed first bp of Nakuru, with responsibility for the Rift Valley Region. As political change swept to independence and beyond, Langford-Smith had to exercise great tact and wisdom in his diocesan leadership.

Langford-Smith retired in 1975, subsequently returning to Sydney, where he served as assistant minister at Christ Church, St Ives 1978-87. Predeceased by his wife, he was survived by three sons.

Southern Cross Dec 1993

BRIAN DICKEY

Electronic Version © Southern Cross College, 2004

Content © Evangelical History Association of Australia and the author, 2004

Seen by some as 'always controversial' and by others as 'humble' and 'most caring', Neville Langford-Smith lived among African peoples in Tanganyika and Kenya for over four decades, sharing their friendship, joys, and sorrows. His long missionary service began in 1932 in Tanganyika at the age of 22 years and continued in 1975, when he retired as Bishop of Nakuru in Kenya. Ordained priest in Sydney in 1937, he married Vera Dobson, a fellow missionary and kindergarten teacher shortly after. Together they shared wholeheartedly in the development and encouragement of an indigenous church in Tanganyika and Kenya, experiencing the difficult war years, the East African Revival, and the turbulent years of the birth and growth of Kenya as a nation.

Bishop. Missionary in Kenya

I heard Him call : the story of Neville Langford-Smith / Margaret Thornton

Book Bib ID 3988781

Format Book, Online - Google Books

Author Thornton, Margaret

Description Melbourne : Acorn Press, 2007.

xiii, 162 p., [16] p. of plates : maps, ports. ; 21 cm.

ISBN 9780908284665 :

Notes Includes index.

Bibliography: 152-154.

Subjects Langford-Smith, Neville, - d.1993. | Church of England - Bishops - Biography. | Church Missionary Society of Australia - Missions - Kenya - History. | Missionaries - Kenya - Biography. | Missionaries - Australia - Biography. | Missions, Australian - Kenya.

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