John Sandwith Boys Smith (8 January 1901 – 3 November 1991) was a 20th-century British priest and academic.[1]
Boys Smith was born in Hordle, Hampshire, in 1901. He was educated at Sherborne School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1927.[2] After a curacy in Sutton Coldfield he returned to St John's where he was to stay until his retirement in 1969. He was its Chaplain from 1927 to 1934; a Fellow from 1927 until 1959; Tutor from 1934 to 1939; Junior Bursar from 1939 to 1944; Senior Bursar from 1944 to 1959; and Master from 1959[3] to 1969. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1963 to 1965.[4] In 1968, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.[5] He died in Herne Hill in 1991.
His aunt was Winifred Boys-Smith, a university professor at Otago University. His brother was Humphry Boys-Smith DSO DSC RNR "one of the most successful Merchant Navy officers serving with the RNR during the second world war."[6] His grandson is Nicholas Boys Smith, founder of Create Streets.