OBITUARY: The Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith prolific hymn writer

Dudley-Smithwas also responsible for Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided, written on a train journey from Nottingham to London in 1967 for the centenary of the Scripture Union and set to music by Michael Baughen. It was chosen by George Carey for his enthronement service as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991 and has become a firm favourite for New Year services, anniversaries and national occasions. He wrote an extra verse for use in services to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.

Firmly rooted in the Anglican evangelical tradition, he wrote more than 450 hymns, mostly in a traditional style, a good number of which were taken up by churches across the denominational and theological spectrum on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born Timothy Dudley Smith (the hyphen was added later) in Manchester on Boxing Day in 1926, he was the younger child and only son of Arthur, a prep school master, and his wife, Phyllis. Growing up in Derbyshire, he decided that he wanted to become a clergyman at the age of 11 following the death of his father, from whom he inherited an abiding love of English poetry. Throughout his life Dudley-Smith admired the mastery of AE Housman and Walter de la Mare, and the work of George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Told by his mother that his father was very ill and unlikely to recover, he had started the practice of praying and although his father did die, his faith persisted and he never wavered in his sense of vocation through his time as a schoolboy at Tonbridge School (after his father’s death, his mother sold their home and the family moved to Folkestone), and as an undergraduate studying maths at Pembroke College, Cambridge, during which he wrote comic verse.

It was at Cambridge that he was introduced to the writings of CS Lewis, through The Screwtape Letters and Perelandra. In his eighties, he reflected that Lewis had been one of the two significant influences on his life; the other being the pastor-theologian and prominent evangelical writer John Stott, his lifelong friend, and Cambridge contemporary.

After theological college at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he was ordained in 1950 and served as a curate in Erith before working at the Cambridge University mission (a youth club for local boys) in Bermondsey, southeast London. Despite his educational background, he was no “clerical toff”, and he won not only respect but affection. His work among Bermondsey youth trained him in the use of clear words and uncomplicated syntax. Both were needed to convey the Christian faith, in his words, “imaginatively, persuasively, and attractively”.

In spring 1954, Dudley-Smith was shepherding droves of Bermondsey boys to Harringay Stadium to listen to the US evangelist Billy Graham, whose UK visit took London by storm, with relays across the nation. Planned for four weeks, it lasted three months, commanding front-page coverage day after day. The impact of Graham’s visit led to Dudley-Smith’s next job.

In 1955 he became editorial secretary of the Evangelical Alliance and founding editor of its monthly journal Crusade, established as part of the follow-up to Graham’s London mission. He then worked at the Church Pastoral Aid Society, where he was general secretary from 1965 to 1973. The society had been set up by Lord Shaftesbury to help alleviate poverty, and to support clergy; one of its first beneficiaries had been Patrick Brontë in Haworth, father of the writers.

Dudley-Smith on one of his early morning walks on holiday in 1980, with his holiday home, Seacroft, in the background

In 1973 Dudley-Smith was appointed archdeacon of Norwich, receiving a note from a wellwisher saying, “I hope you realise you have in your care the largest concentration of medieval churches in western Christendom.” The hundred or so clergy and their families in his charge were of greater concern. From 1981 to 1991 he was suffragan bishop of Thetford. He played no small role in wider religious life: he served as president of the expanding Evangelical Alliance (1987-92) while satellite offices were being established in the Celtic nations; on the Church of England General Synod, and its panel of chairmen; and as chair of the board at Monkton Combe School.

His hymn writing spanned more than 60 years and was largely undertaken during annual family holidays in Cornwall where he developed a daily routine of writing early in the morning, before the rest of the family were up, and in the later afternoon. “In addition”, he noted in the preface to one of his many published collections of hymns, “if things have reached a point where it is difficult to leave them, my MS book has been known to come with me to the beach, or on a picnic, and sometimes to a late-night session when the household has gone to sleep.

Some particularly smudged pages bear witness to where the process of revision has even continued in the bath!” In 1968 he began the practice of writing a new text each year for the family Christmas card. Several of these have become widely used as carols and Christmas hymns, notably A song was heard at Christmas, Child of the stable’s secret birth and Holy child, how still you lie.

As might be expected from his strong evangelical pedigree and convictions, the hallmark of Dudley-Smith’s hymns is their strong biblical basis. Many are essentially paraphrases of the Scriptures although he also drew on non-biblical sources, such as John Bunyan’s spiritual classic The Pilgrim’s Progress (for There is a path that pilgrims take) and a sermon by the Elizabethan bishop John Jewel (To see the print of Jesus’ feet). Although he claimed to have no innate musical sense or ability, his work was distinguished by clear rhythmic and metrical consistency and quality and his lines were always eminently singable.

His work as a hymn writer was recognised and honoured by the award of a Lambeth MLitt in 1991; fellowship of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 1997; an OBE and vice-presidency of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 2003; and fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music in 2011.

Dudley-Smith continued writing hymns throughout his retirement

He served on the editorial committee of several hymnals and compiled the anthologies A Flame of Love (selections from the hymns of Charles Wesley) and Praying with the English Hymn-Writers. He also wrote the first biography of Stott in two volumes, John Stott: the Making of a Leader (1999) and John Stott: a Global Ministry (2001).

Dudley-Smith continued writing hymns throughout his retirement, which he spent near Salisbury. His wife, June Arlette MacDonald, a former childcare officer and junior Wimbledon player, died in 2007. They had been married since 1959. He is survived by two daughters and a son: Caroline is a poet; Sarah is the wife of a retired vicar; and James is rector of Yeovil with Kingston Pitney.

To the last there was always a modesty about Dudley-Smith’s manner and speech. Hymn writing was, he said, “a functional art”, and this was the title he gave to his final book, a substantial treatment of hymnology published by Oxford University Press in 2017, when he was 90.

The Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith OBE, hymn writer, was born on December 26, 1926. He died on August 12, 2024, aged 97

OBITUARY: The Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith prolific hymn writer
One of the most accomplished English hymn writers, admired by John Betjeman and best known for ‘Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord’

THE TIMES
August 14 2024

Dudley-Smith with Billy Graham in Norwich in 1984: he was involved in the US evangelist’s hugely popular UK visit three decades earlier

Undoubtedly the most popular of the hundreds of hymns written by Timothy Dudley-Smith was Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord. A modern language version of The Magnificat, it came to him when he was reading a review copy of the New English Bible in 1961. Set to the soaring tune Woodlands by Walter Greatorex, it has appeared in over 220 hymn books. John Betjeman described it in 1976 as “one of very few new hymns really to establish themselves in recent years”.