CLERGYMAN’S SAD END

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1933, Page 7

CLERGYMAN’S SAD END

SHOT CANON’S BANKRUPTCY. The London Gazette recently announced that a receiving order under the Bankruptcy Acts had been made on his own petition, against Canon ■ trn ® Frederick Smith, who was found shot dead, kneeling by his bedside in the rectory at Yate, -near Bristol. A revolver was near him. . Canon Smith, who was a widower, aged 62, had been rector of Yate since 1930. Formerly he was vicar of Tewkesbury. A friend said that there was no doubt that he had brought himself to his apparent state of penury by his great generosity to the poor. He never refused any application for assistance made to him by anyone genuinely in need, and there were scores of poor people in the district who would long to be grateful for his unfailing generosity. The same story was told at Tewkesbury. “He was almost extravagantly generous to the poor in an unostentatious way,” said a resident. A close friend living in Gloucestershire, said that he believed Canon Smith had once been a very wealthy man, but his income had declined considerably in recent years.