Born in Shanghai, the son of missionary Edward Winter Syle, Henry Winter Syle became deaf from scarlet fever when he was six years old. He studied at Bartlett’s School in New York and later Connecticut, and then attended Trinity College, but had to withdraw because of the poor health that would afflict him all his life. He wanted to complete his education at the National Deaf Mute College, but Edward Miner Gallaudet suggested he go to St. John’s College in England. Syle’s frequent illnesses once again left him unable to complete the full term at St. John’s. He returned to America, where he finally earned his bachelor’s degree at Yale University in 1869. He was the first deaf person to earn a degree at a hearing college.

Syle began teaching and working as a librarian at the New York Institution for the Deaf in 1869, as well as operating a night school for the deaf. He married Margaret Flannery, a graduate of the New York Institution, in 1872. He earned a master’s degree from Yale in the same year, but left teaching in 1875 to move to Philadelphia, where he got a job at the U.S. Mint.

Syle had been active in the religious community as a lay reader, and also participated in the Rev. Thomas Gallaudet’s missions to the deaf. At Gallaudet’s urging and with the support of Philadelphia Bishop William Bacon Stevens, Syle began studying for holy orders and became an Episcopalian deacon in 1876. In 1883, Syle was ordained as an Episcopalian priest by Bishop Stevens, becoming the first deaf priest in America. He continued to be active in the Church Mission for the Deaf in the Philadelphia area, and in 1888 founded his own congregation, All Souls’ Church, the first church intended for the deaf.

Syle died of pneumonia in January 1890. The Episcopalian calendar of saints commemorates Syle’s and Rev. Thomas Gallaudet’s ministry work on August 27.