Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Smith, Thomas (1817-1906)
SMITH, THOMAS (1817–1906), missionary and mathematician, born at Symington manse on 8 July 1817, was eldest son in a family of ten children of John Smith, parish minister of Symington, Lanarkshire, by his wife Jean Stodart. After attending the parish school, he matriculated at thirteen at Edinburgh University, where he took the highest honours in mathematics and physics. Entering the divinity hall in 1834, he studied under Thomas Chalmers [q. v.], and in 1839 was licensed to preach. Coming under the influence of Dr. Alexander Duff [q. v.], he was ordained to the Scottish mission in Calcutta (7 March 1839). At the Church of Scotland's headquarters at Calcutta he quickly distinguished himself both as an intellectual preacher and as a teacher of mathematics and physical science. In 1843, on the disruption of the Church of Scotland, Smith and his colleagues in India joined the Free Church.
Thenceforth Smith was busily engaged in building up the Indian mission of the Free Church. Besides exercising much influence among the natives, he furthered the cause of education; was an active contributor to missionary literature and to Indian journalism, was a chief writer in the 'Calcutta Review' from its foundation, and was editor from 1851 to 1859.
When he went to India, it was impossible for male missionaries to reach the women, all of whom above the very lowest class were shut off from the society of men. Smith's proposal in the 'Christian Observer' in 1840 to send lady missionaries and governesses, both European and Indian, into the zenana bore fruit in the first Zenana mission, which was started in 1854 and was the crowning achievement of Smith's Indian career. On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 Smith acted as chaplain of the 42nd Highlanders (Black Watch) at Calcutta, and he accompanied the regiment on active service up country.
Smith finally returned to Scotland in 1859, and from that date until 1879 conducted a home mission charge in one of the poorest districts of Edinburgh. In 1880 he succeeded his friend, Alexander Duff [q. v.], in the chair of evangelistic theology in New College, Edinburgh, retiring in 1893 with the rank of emeritus professor and a seat in the senatus. In 1891 he was moderator of the general assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, and in March 1899 he celebrated his ministerial diamond jubilee.
In ecclesiastical politics Smith was a conservative, usually co-operating with Dr. James Begg [q. v.], whose biography he wrote (1885-8). He strongly opposed the first proposals for the union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches (1863-73), but reluctantly accepted the change at the close of his life. From Edinburgh University Smith received three honorary degrees, M.A. in 1858, D.D. in 1867, and LL.D. in 1900.
Smith was also a brilliant mathematician, scholar, and linguist. Lord Kelvin said: 'Had [he] devoted himself to mathematical science ... he would unquestionably have risen to the very highest eminence in that science. As it was, teste his logarithmic calculations (which were not completed), he was one of the foremost mathematical scholars of his day.' In 1857 Smith published 'An 'Elementary Treatise on Plane Geometry according to the Method of Rectilineal Co-ordinates,' and in 1902 'The Life of Euclid' in Oliphant Smeaton's series of 'World's Epoch-Makers.' Smith edited a noteworthy edition of the puritan divines (1860-6), and learned French in order to translate Vinet's 'Studies in Pascal,' and German to prepare English versions of Warneck's missionary writings. Besides publishing a short biography of Dr. Alexander Duff [q. v.] for the 'Men Worth Remembering' series (1883), and 'Mediæval Missions' ('Duff Missionary Lectures,' 1880), he edited the 'Letters of Samuel Rutherford' (1881).
Smith died at Edinburgh on 26 May 1906, and was buried in the Grange cemetery. A presentation portrait, painted by J. H. Lorimer, R.S.A., in 1903, is now in the custody of the senatus of New College, Edinburgh. In 1839 Smith married Grace, daughter of D. K. Whyte, paymaster, R.N.; she died in 1886, His third son, the Rev. William Whyte Smith, B.D., minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh' predeceased him. His only surviving son' David Whyte Ewart Smith, is a justice of the peace and honorary sheriff substitute for Haddingtonshire.
[Scotsman, 27 May 1906; Scottish Review, 31 May 1906 (memorial notice by George Smith, LL.D., C.I.E.); private information.]