Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien plot

Location

Plot number (FHS)	x310
Row	18
Section	175
Date

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Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien plot

Plot number:
18,175
Family name:
Smith-Dorrien
Burial date:

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Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien

02/10/1814 –08/10/1879

Brother of Augustus Smith, churchwarden of St Peter's & Lt. Colonel in the Herts Militia

02/10/1814 –08/10/1879

Brother of Augustus Smith, churchwarden of St Peter's & Lt. Colonel in the Herts Militia

Relatives

Mary Ann Smith-Dorrien — wife

Augustus Smith — brother

Horace Lockwood Smith Dorrien (261) — son

Henry Theophilus Smith-Dorrien (258) — son

Arthur Hale Smith Dorrien — son

Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien was born Robert Algernon Smith, the son of James Smith and Mary Isabella Pechell. James Smith was a member of the Nottinghamshire banking family who resided at Ashlyns Hall in Berkhamsted.

Robert married Mary Anne Drever in 1845, marrying into another banking family, the Dorriens of Haresfoot (George Dorrien was Governor of the Bank of England 1818-1819). In 1845 he legally changed his name to Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien by Royal Licence, adopting his wife’s maiden name and continuing the Dorrien family name. Mary and Robert at Haresfoot, and had fifteen children:

Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith b. 7 Feb 1846, d. 6 Aug 1918
Frances Ann Isabella Smith-Dorrien b. 29 Mar 1847, d. 20 Oct 1910
Frederick Smith-Dorrien b. c 1848
Marian Smith-Dorrien b. c 1849, d. 30 Nov 1944
Henry Theophilus Smith-Dorrien b. 8 May 1850
Walter Montgomery Smith-Dorrien b. 13 Jun 1851, d. 17 Dec 1924
Amy Smith-Dorrien b. 22 Aug 1852, d. 4 Sep 1945
Edith Smith-Dorrien b. 30 Dec 1853
Alma Paulina Smith-Dorrien b. c 1855, d. 19 Feb 1941
Rear-Admiral Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien b. 23 May 1856, d. 5 Jun 1933
General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien b. 26 May 1858, d. 12 Aug 1939
Mary Beatrice Smith-Dorrien b. c 1859, d. 5 Jan 1940
Maud Charlotte Smith-Dorrien b. 10 Sep 1860, d. 9 Mar 1937
Louisa Mildred Smith-Dorrien b. c 1862
Dora Helen Smith-Dorrien b. c 1863, d. 24 Feb 1947

The Smith, the Dorrien and the Smith-Dorrien families played a prominent role in Berkhamsted’s history for more than 150 years. Robert’s better-known brother was Augustus Smith MP, who is remembered for his involvement in the “Battle of Berkhamsted Common” of 1866, and who served as Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly for over thirty years. After Augustus’s death in 1872, Mary and Robert’s eldest son, Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien succeeded him as Lord Proprietor.

Robert held the office of Justice of the Peace (JP). He served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Herts Militia and held the rank of Captain in the 3rd Light Dragoons and 16th Lancers.

He also served as Churchwarden at St Peter’s Church from 1868, and was a key figure in a project to restore the neglected parish church. In 1852 he commissioned the reglazing of the large north window in the north transept as a memorial to members of the Dorrien family, and this window still bears memorial inscriptions.

In the 1868-72 the first phase of restoration work began. Robert died in office 1879, and was succeeded as Churchwarden by his son Thomas. A stained-glass window by Thomas Eamer Kempe in the south aisle of St Peter’s Church was installed in Robert’s memory, and a plaque underneath reads:

“Giving thanks to God for the honoured memory of Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien, late Lieut. Colonel of the Herts Militia & for the zeal shown by him as Churchwarden in the restoration of this Church, his friends and neighbours have rebuilt this Aisle and dedicated this window. MDCCCLXXX”

Robert’s influence and charm was fondly remembered, as was his devotion to the restoration of the church building:

During the restoration of the church, the worthy Colonel was often there morning, noon, afternoon, and night and did far more than they could expect a clerk of the works to attend to. Colonel Dorrien had a knack of getting the ladies on his side, and that was a great thing. He was … the most popular man in the parish, and if they should have to elect a member of Parliament for that town, Colonel Dorrien would be that man.

Bucks Herald, Apr 1873
with thanks to Berkhamsted Local History and Museum Society

The restoration of St Peter’s continued after Robert’s death, and in 1870, the final phase of the work was undertaken by the renowned Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield.

Sources: The Peerage

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Family name	Smith-Dorrien
Burial date	Not known
Burial capacity	Not known
Burial depth	Not known
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Burial visible (1991)?

Originally a plinth with a cross, now missing. The inscription quote the Song of Simeon from the Gospel of Luke, a canticle which is sung at evensong at St Peter’s Church today:

Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien
Born Octr 2nd 1814
Died Octr 8th 1879

“Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”
S. Luke II:29

The Smith, the Dorrien and the Smith-Dorrien families played a prominent role in Berkhamsted’s history for more than 150 years. They are linked with two adjoining estates – that of Haresfoot and that of Ashlyns Hall – which still stand today. Both families had their roots in banking. John Dorrien, whose son George was Governor of the Bank of England 1818-1819, purchased Haresfoot towards the end of the 18th century. In 1801, James Smith, a member of a well-known Nottinghamshire banking family, bought Ashlyns Hall.

The history of the two families became inextricably linked when Robert Algernon Smith, the younger brother of Augustus Smith of Ashlyns Hall and the Isles of Scilly, married the grand-daughter of John Dorrien, Mary Anne Drever. She bore him fifteen children. Robert changed his name to Smith-Dorrien. His eldest son, Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien was to become Lord Proprietor of the Scilly Isles at the death of Augustus Smith. Most of this very large family together with some of the Pechell family (Mary Anne Pechell was the second wife of James Smith) are commemorated by a very fine memorial in St Peter’s Church. Elsewhere, on the walls of the north transept, two tablets commemorate members of the Dorrien family.

In Rectory Lane Cemetery, five members of the Smith-Dorrien family are buried – among them military and naval men – whose names are known well beyond the town of Berkhamsted.