Charles Alan Smythies (6 August 1844 – 7 May 1894) was a British colonial bishop in the 19th century.

Life

Smythies was born in Colchester, the son of the Rev. Charles Norfolk Smythies, vicar of St-Mary-at-the-Walls there, and his wife Isabella Travers, daughter of Eaton Travers RN. He was educated at Felsted School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and ordained in 1869. His first post was a curacy in Great Marlow, after which he was Vicar of Roath in Cardiff. Smythies was the fourth Bishop of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, and was consecrated on 30 November 1883, serving as Bishop in Central Africa until that diocese was split (by his initiative) in 1892, and then of one of the parts, Zanzibar, until his death.