Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Augustus Smith’s name is inscribed on the base of the cemetery foundation stone, listed as a churchwarden. His name is one of the best-known in Berkhamsted’s history, and he was clearly involved in the foundation of Rectory Lane Cemetery, and yet he is not buried here. Augustus John Smith was the eldest son of James Smith and Mary Isabella Pechell. The Smiths were originally a wealthy banking family from Nottingham and had become established as an influential family in Berkhamsted. James Smith had served as a churchwarden of St Peter’s and had donated £25 towards the new Cemetery. In 1842, Augustus acquired the lease from the Duchy of Cornwall of the Isles of Scilly, beginning a long family connection with the remote Cornish islands. He styled himself “Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly” and his 35-year autocratic rule over the islands was often unpopular. His nickname there was “The Emperor”. Augustus is especially remembered in Berkhamsted as the heroic leading figure in the “Battle of Berkhamsted Common” of 1866, when he fought for access rights of local people to common land against a plan by Lord Brownlow to fence it off. An offshoot of the Smith family was the Smith-Dorrien family, established in 1845 when Augustus’s younger brother Robert Algernon Smith (1814-1879) married Mary Ann Drever. Robert adopted the maiden name of his mother-in-law and changed his name to Smith-Dorrien by Royal Licence. Several Smiths are buried in the family vault in St Peter’s Church, and since the creation of Rectory Lane Cemetery, there are several Smith-Dorrien burials here. Augustus Smith, however, is missing. The reason for this lies in his attachment to the Scilly Isles. From his home at Tresco Abbey, Smith enjoyed looking through his telescope at the distant church tower of St Buryan’s Church on the mainland, and his wish was to be buried there. After he died in Plymouth in 1872, his instructions were carried out and he was buried on 6 August at 6am at St Buryan’s. Despite Smith’s desire for a small, private funeral, there was a pretty good turnout; an evocative account published by Lady Sophia Frances Tower in 1873 describes a ceremony attended by a number of prominent names from Berkhamsted, who had come a long way to pay their respects. Among the mourners were Augustus’s brother, Col. Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien; Col. Le Marchant, his brother-in-law; Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith, his nephew (and successor as Lord Proprietor of Scilly); cousin Augustus Pechell; Charles Allen and Charles Holliday – all names that have resonance to Berkhamsted’s local history enthusiasts. On St Mary's Isle in the Isles of Scilly there is a tall stone monument in the churchyard of St Mary's Old Church in memory of Augustus Smith. However, in his home town of Berkhamsted, one of our largest historical figures is commemorated only with 25 small letters inscribed on a stone, inches above the ground. All hail, The Emperor.   Lady Sophia Frances Tower, In Memoriam. Scilly and Its Emperor (Uxbridge, 1873), p.131