15 St Barnabas Road

History of 15 St Barnabas Road

1913

Sidney Smith

Alexander Wood, 1926 (Cambridgeshire Collection)

1936, Blue Book

1939

Alexander Wood, b 1879, university lecturer and college tutor

Eleanor A, b 1877

Mary M, b 1915

?

Maud Rayner, b 1906, servant

Cllr Dr Alex Wood of the Cambridge Labour Party

1962

Sidney Smith

Sydney Smith, MA PhD

Residents Professor Sydney Smith (1911-1988) and his sister Kate Smith.

He was zoologist at St Catherines, and an expert in rare Chinese porcelain which he gifted to the Fitzwilliam Museum and is there on the ground floor to see even now.

Miss Smith was the sister of Dr Sydney Smith, a Fellow of St Catharine’s between 1939 and 1988. Dr Smith’s obituary said of him that he was the archetypal Cambridge Don who introduced his pupils to wider aspects of life and culture beyond their subject. He couldn’t have done that without the help of his sister Kate. All Sydney’s pupils were invited to lunch, tea or dinner with him and Kate – an excellent cook – at their home in St Barnabas Road. Everyone was welcomed, included, and made to feel at home. It was over those dinners that discussions about life and culture happened. Anyone who was a pupil of Sydney’s would remember Kate equally.

1988 after the death of Sydney Smith the house was sold.

2001-2013 Judy and Adrian Reith