George Simms

His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. George Otto Simms (4 July 1910 – 15 November 1991), D.D., was an archbishop in the Church of Ireland.

Early life and education

He was born at Combermore House in Lifford, a small town in the east of County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. He also attended the Prior School in Lifford for a time. He went on to study at Trinity College, Dublin, after having attended Cheltenham College, a public school in Britain.

Clerical and scholarly career

He became a deacon in 1935 and a priest in 1936. He was appointed Dean of Cork in 1952; consecrated a bishop, he served as Lord Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, 1952-56.

He was successively Lord Archbishop of Dublin, from 1956 to 1969, and then Lord Archbishop of Armagh, from 1969 to 1980. He was also a scholar, who published research on the history of the Church of Ireland and on the Book of Kells.

George Otto Simms is interred with his wife, Mercy Felicia née Gwynn (1915–1998) in the cemetery attached to St. Maelruain's Church, Tallaght, County Dublin.

Publications

• For Better, for Worse, 1945
• The Book of Kells: a short description, 1950
• (ed with E. H. Alton and P. Meyer) The Book of Kells (facsimile edn), Berne, 1951
• The Bible in Perspective, 1953
• Christ within Me, 1975
• Irish Illuminated Manuscripts, 1980
• In My Understanding, 1982
• Tullow's Story, 1983
• (with R. G. F. Jenkins) Pioneers and Partners, 1985
• Angels and Saints, 1988
• Exploring the Book of Kells, 1988
• Brendan the Navigator, 1989

Religious titles
Preceded by Arthur William Barton	Archbishop of Dublin 1956–1969	Succeeded by Alan Alexander Buchanan