Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien (born Robert Algernon Smith) was a British churchwarden and soldier.

Biography

Memorial to Robert Algernon Smith Dorrien

Robert Smith was born on 2 October 1814 to James Smith and Mary Isabella Pechell. He married Mary Anne Drever, a member of the Dorrien family, in 1845. He adopted his wife's maiden name and changed his surname by Royal Licence to Smith-Dorrien. Together they had 15 children, including

Thomas Smith-Dorrien Lieutenant Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith (7 February 1846 – 6 August 1918) was Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly from 1872 until his death in 1918. Family Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith was born on 7 February 1846 at Berkha ...

and

Horace Smith-Dorrien General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, (26 May 1858 – 12 August 1930) was a British Army General. One of the few British survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana as a young officer, he also distinguished himself in the Second Boer War. Smith ...

. He served as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and was a

, serving in the

Hertfordshire Militia The Hertfordshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in Hertfordshire in South East England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 and their service in the English Civil War, the Militia of Hertfordshire served during times ...

. He also was a

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in both the

3rd Light Dragoons Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

and the

16th Lancers The 16th The Queen's Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922. History Early war ...

. Smith-Dorrien was heavily involved in the restoration of the now

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

St Peter's Church in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, serving as the Churchwarden from 1868 until his death on 8 October 1879. Due to his work for the church building, a stained glass window by

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichg ...

was installed and dedicated in his honour, along with a plaque.

Family

Smith-Dorrien's elder brother was Augustus Smith, Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly from 1834 to 1872. Augustus Smith was succeeded as Lord Proprietor by Robert Smith-Dorrien's eldest son, Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith-Dorrien, Robert Algernon 1814 births 1879 deaths 19th-century British Army personnel Churchwardens Dorrien and Smith-Dorrien family English justices of the peace Hertfordshire Militia officers People from Berkhamsted