Percy Ellen Algernon Frederick William Sydney Smythe, 8th Viscount Strangford (26 November 1825[1] – 9 January 1869) was a British nobleman and man of letters.

During all his earlier years, Percy Smythe was nearly blind, in consequence, it was believed, of his mother having suffered hardship on a journey up the Baltic Sea in wintry weather shortly before his birth.

[3] While at Constantinople, where he served under Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Smythe gained a mastery not only of Turkish and its dialects, but of the forms of modern Greek.

[8][3] The future national poet of Bulgaria, Ivan Vazov, eulogises his name and deeds in several of his poems written in 1876, following the April uprising and the Turkish atrocities in Rumelia, including one dedicated to his wife, Lady Strangford.

[citation needed] The Australian botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller named the species of flowering plant Goodenia strangfordii in his honour.