St Cross College, Oxford

Harry Smythe

Pusey Fellow, 1983-1993

Harry Reynolds Smythe, who died in the summer of 2005 at the age of 81, was a Pusey Fellow between 1983 and 1993 and for almost all of those years served as Garden Master. His love of unusual planting and his close working partnership with a succession of gardeners from the Parks Department created a garden in St Giles which was striking, attractive and often slightly off-the-beaten-track of Oxford gardens. It gave him the opportunity to continue a major interest which he had developed during his distinguished years as the Anglican Communion's semi-official ambassador in Rome.

Graduating from Sydney in 1945, Smythe came first to St Peter's and then to Christ Church to complete a doctorate under the influence of Professor F. L. Cross. He was ordained in England but returned to Australia where he combined parish work with formal university teaching and the training of new priests. In 1970, to his surprise, he was invited to become the Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. In the ecumenical world ushered in by Vatican II this had been established in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilij which was to be Smythe's home for over a decade. There he cultivated a roof garden which became legendary among the Centre's many visitors from Archbishops to young students. Watering the forest of pots in the summer could be a lengthy task. He had a formal role representing the Anglican Communion at the Vatican and had an abiding affection for Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. More important, perhaps, were the informal links and friendships he forged with a generation of church leaders.

In 1983 Smythe returned to Oxford as the Custodian of the Library at Pusey House. His background in patristics, love of books and pastoral work with young people came together. To the College he brought considerable horticultural experience and expertise. A number of gardeners collaborated with him in bringing some rare plants to the quadrangle, some of which continue to thrive two decades on. Cutting, grafting and pruning interested him. The striking red rose which climbs the tower was taken from a back garden in St John Street whilst the white wisteria moved the other way to Beaumont Buildings in the expert hands of the Parks' Department. On his retirement in 1993 he presented and planted a flowering tree at the west end of the chapel which stands as an appropriately elegant and dignified memorial to an elegant and dignified man.

K. E. Macnab
Garden Master 1993-98

Arthur Williams

Founding Fellow
28th August 1905 – 2nd September 2005

Arthur Williams played a significant part in the development of medicine and medical training in East Africa. He joined the colonial medical service in 1931, when he was posted to Uganda. There he worked in the country's largest hospital – a series of corrugated iron-roofed bungalows.

In 1949 he was appointed as medical superintendent and physician at Mulago hospital and helped initiate a scheme for a new 900-bed hospital at Mulago. He was also largely responsible for organising the Medical Research Council's East African tuberculosis chemotherapy trials.

In 1951 he became head of the department of medicine, Makerere University College, and two years later became its first Professor of Medicine. He was founder member and president of the Association of Physicians of East Africa in 1957, the same year he became vice principal of Makerere. He fostered close links with medical schools in the UK.

In 1961, after 30 years service to medicine in Uganda, he was appointed CBE. He returned to England where he became director of postgraduate medical studies at Oxford. He was a founder fellow of St Cross College, and in his time at Oxford, besides many other commitments, was on committees advising the Government of Tanganyika on the future of its health services and on low priced books for developing countries.

Reprinted from The Times, 11th October 2005