As well as his church mission work, Bailey was noted for his role as a community organizer; coordinating meetings in the wake of the Namamugi Incident in 1862.
In 1867 Bailey also established a Japanese language monthly periodical, The Bankoku Shimbunshi, publishing 18 volumes over the succeeding two years.
Syle was born in Barnstaple, England, but after emigration to the United States as a young man was a graduate of both Kenyon College, Ohio and the Virginia Theological Seminary.
The departure of Bailey also marked a significant change in the finances of Christ Church, Yokohama; the British Government withdrawing its annual consular stipend of 400 pounds per annum at the end of 1874.
[2] Returning to England in 1874, Bailey was serving as parish priest at St. Stephen's, Cold Norton, Essex at the time of his death in 1899.