Fundo F2101 - Reginald Sidney Kingsley Seeley fonds

Reginald Sidney Kingsley Seeley, administrator, educator, theologian, and Provost of Trinity College, was born in 1908 in Herefordshire, England. He was the son of the Venerable George Henry Seeley, sometime Archdeacon of Rangoon. He attended Marlborough College and Christ's College, Cambridge. He took both parts of a Classical Tripos then studied theology at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in 1930 and an M.A. in 1934.

He was made deacon in 1932 and priest in 1933 in Coventry Cathedral, and he served for two years as curate of Rugby Parish Church. In 1934 he returned to Cambridge as Chaplain of St. John's College. He assumed additional duties as organizing secretary of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi (1935), and was also examining chaplain to the Bishop of Bristol. He came to Canada in 1938 as Professor of Exegetical Theology at St. John's College, Winnipeg, and as canon of St. John's Cathedral in that city. In 1941 he was appointed Warden of St. John's College, and in 1943 became rector of St. George's Cathedral, Kingston, and Dean of the Diocese of Ontario.

Seeley was appointed Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, Toronto, in 1945. In 1952, Seeley oversaw the centenary celebration of Trinity College. His tenure also saw the construction of the chapel, which was consecrated in 1955, and a new residence house at the north-east side of the quadrangle. He was the liaison officer for the Colonial Service of Great Britain, vice-president of the Institute of Public Affairs, and the first president of the Classical Association of Canada. Seeley addressed the public through many radio broadcasts and was the author of The Sign of the Cross: A Meditation on the Place of the Cross in Human Living and The Function of the University.

Seeley married Marjory Peters on 30 July 1955 in St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg. On 3 Aug 1957 he died from injuries sustained in a car accident in Trenton, Ontario.