Sub-Lt. A. Smith-Dorrien.

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Photo By Tim Needham.
Sub-Lt. A. Smith-Dorrien HMS Shah, present at Gingindlovu & the Relief of Eshowe (Berkhamsted)

Rear Admiral Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien was born on 23 May 1856, the son of Robert Algernon Smith Dorrien and Mary Ann Drever, at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. He enlisted in the Royal Navy as a cadet in January 1870.

Smith-Dorrien entered the Britannia in 1870 and then went to the Trafalgar, which was the cadet training ship at that time. His first service was in the Endymion between 1872 and 1873, after which he joined the Volage during an expedition, 1874 to 1875, to observe the transit of Venus at Kerguelen Island, Indian Ocean. He then served in the Sultan, Channel Squadron, before taking his gunnery and Greenwich courses. In 1876 he was appointed to the Shah on her commission as flagship in the Pacific and was present at the action with the Peruvian turret-ship Huascar. During the Zulu war of 1879 he was in the Naval Brigade and was also promoted to lieutenant. From 1880 he was in the Eclipse, East Indies Station, operating against the slave trade; he ended the commission by service in the Naval Brigade in Egypt, 1882. On his return home he was appointed Flag-Lieutenant to the Commander-in-Chief, Devonport. From 1884 to 1885 he served in the Mediterranean and then in China in the Invincible; from 1886 to 1887 he was in the Red Sea in the Condor; from 1887 to 1889 he was in the Espiegle, in the Pacific and then from 1889 to 1893 was in the Phaeton on the Mediterranean Station. He was appointed commander in 1893, going to the Britannia and in 1897 to the Alacrity, Admiral's despatch vessel on the China Station. Having become a captain in 1900, in 1901 he commanded the Rainbow. He retired in 1904 and was promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list in 1909.

Source: Collections/archive/catalogue/record.

Rear-Admiral A. H. Smith-Dorrien, whose body was found yesterday in a railway cutting near Berkhamsted, where he lived, was 77. He belonged to the family of Tresco Abbey, of which the successive heads were lords of the Scilly Islands. In his naval career, he was present at the celebrated action 56 years ago between the British frigate Shah and the Peruvian turret-ship Huascar.
Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien was the fourth son of Colonel R. A. Smith-Dorrien and an elder brother of the late General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. His nephew, Major A. A. Dorrien-Smith, D.S.O., now of Tresco Abbey, who is, like his late father, a great horticulturist, is the third of his race to be Lord of the Scilly Islands, a position associated first with the Blanchminsters in the fourteenth century and later with the Godolphin family, seigneurs of the islands under the Crown from 1687 to 1831. On the termination of the original lease, the Duchy of Cornwall resumed possession of all the islands except Tresco.
Born on May 23, 1856, Smith-Dorrien entered the Britannia as a naval cadet in January, 1870, and from 1872, served as midshipman in the screw corvette Volage, and the armour-plated iron ship Sultan. He became a sub-lieutenant in December, 1875, and in this rank he served in the Shah, flagship of Rear-Admiral Algernon de Horsey, in the Pacific during her engagement with the Peruvian rebel turret-ship Huascar on May 29, 1877. The Shah was an iron frigate, cased with wood, larger than her antagonist, which not only lay low in the water and offered a very small target, but was also protected by iron armour. The action was intermittent owing to the desire of the British Admiral not to damage the town of Ylo, off which the Huascar steamed, and although the latter ship was struck 60 times, only one shell penetrated her armour without, however, doing any serious damage. The affair was much discussed in after years as an example of the resisting powers of armour against the old types of muzzle-loading guns.
While still a sub-lieutenant Smith-Dorrien was landed for service with the Naval Brigade in Zululand in 1879. He was with the advance guard of the Ekowe relief column, and was present at the Battle of Gingihlovo on April 2. He afterwards joined General Crealock's column and advanced
to Port Durnford. He was mentioned in dispatches and received the South African medal, 1877-79. As a lieutenant he was appointed in January, 1880 to the corvette Eclipse, in the East Indies. In her he took part in the operations of the Egyptian War of 1882, receiving the medal and the Khedive's Bronze Star. In 1889-93 he was first lieutenant of the small cruiser Phaeton, Captain R. N. Custance, in the Mediterranean, and was promoted to commander on June 30, 1893.
In the following January he was selected to be commander of the Britannia, cadets' training ship at Dartmouth, and three years later he took command of the dispatch vessel Alacrity on the China Station. His promotion to Captain was dated June 30, 1900, and he afterwards commanded H.M.S. Rainbow, in the Cruiser Squadron. After retiring as a captain in 1904, he was promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list in 1909.
On his retirement, Rear Admiral Smith-Dorrien returned to his old family home town of Berkhamsted, and was active in local affairs. He was keenly patriotic and outspoken in his criticism of any measure or action he considered detrimental to the country or the Empire. He was possessed of much the same energy to see wrongs righted as his relative, Augustus Smith, in the famous law suit with Lord Brownlow regarding commoners' rights at Berkhamsted. There, he and his sisters have long been much beloved for their kindliness to help in trouble. Their home, New Lodge, and it's gardens, has often been the scene of fêtes or garden parties in aid of some good object. Rear-Admiral Smith-Dorrien's life in the Senior Service and his staunch loyalty to the memory of his brother, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, drew him to the cause of the ex-service man and the British Legion. All who had served the empire were assured of his friendship and support, and he never wearied in his advocacy of the project that there should be a British Legion day each year. He was president of the local chrysanthemum society, at which he was a regular exhibitor and frequent prize-winner.


The funeral of Rear-Admiral Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien took place at Berkhamsted, Herts, on Friday. The Rev. W. C. Tainsby officiated, pall bearers were supplied by the local branch of the British Legion, and included Mr. J. A. Littlejohns, who had served in the Zulu campaign with the Admiral.
Miss B. Smith-Dorrien,
Miss A. Smith-Dorrien (Sisters),
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Constable Curtis (Sister and Brother-in-Law),
Lady Smith-Dorrien (Sister-in-Law),
Mr. G.H.G Smith-Dorrien,
Mr. and Mrs. P.L. Smith-Dorrien,
Mr. D. B. Smith-Dorrien,
Major and Mrs. A. R. Boyle,
Major A. A. Dorrien-Smith,
Mrs. Rowley,
Mrs. Oates,
Lieutenant Colonel Horace Kirby,
Mr. and Mrs. Townshend Boscawen (Nephew and Niece),
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes
and Lady Keyes (Cousins),
Mr. John Boscawen (Great-Nephew), and,
Mr. G. W. Breitmeyer.
Among others present were,
Sir Walter and Lady Halsey,
The Misses Halsey,
Mrs. Pryor,
Lady Hadden,
Sir Richard and Lady Cooper,
Mr. R. P. Cooper,
Mrs. Gustavus Talbot,
Mr. G.G. Talbot,
Colonel C. B. Wood,
The Rev. C. T. T. Wood,
Mrs. Douglas,
Miss Graham Brown,
Mr. H. L. Lubbock (Representing the Boy Scouts Assn.),
Mr. Havelock Collins,
Engineer Captain L. W. Curgenven, R.N., Miss Sedgwick, Miss F. Wood,
Miss C. F. Wood,
Mrs. Williams,
Mr. E. C. Graves (Representing Mr. J.C.C. Davidson, M.P., and the Hemel Hempstead Conservative Association,
Miss Pearson,
Mr. Gerald Kingsley,
Mr. C. J. Parsons (Also Representing Major J. Parsons),
the Rev, L. G. E. Sunderland, the Rev. T. F. Yale,
the Rev. H. H. Thompson,
Mrs. R. Humphrey Haslam,
Bigadier General J. E. Bush,
Colonel N. Wilson,
Lieutenantt -Colonel H. V. Lane,
Admiral Sir ReginaldCustance,
Surgeon Captain Robley Browne, R.N.,
Mr. P. Clutterbuck,
Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Craufurd,
Colonel R. Q. Caufurd, (In charge of the large parade of ex-Service men),
Dr. Esme Wingfield-Stratford,
Mr. Herbert F. Eve,
Miss Marten,
Miss Owen,
Mr. and Mrs L. Granville Ram,
Major E. K. Ridley,
Lieutenent-Commander D. Wainwright,
Mr. K. L. Mackenzie,
Mr. G. W. Randle,
Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Fellows,
Dr. J. W. Turner,
Mr. W. R. K. Saville (chairman of the Berkhamsted Urban District council), And Representatives of local sosieties, clubs, and charitable organizations.

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The Smith-Dorrien family including Horace and his brothers, Rear Admiral Arthur and Lt Commander Henry.

TWO RETIRED FLAG OFFICERS

We regret to announce the deaths of two distinguished retired naval officers - Rear-Admiral A. H. Smith-Dorrien and Vice-Admiral L. E. Wintz.
The body of Rear-Admiral Smith-Dorrien, who was 77, was found yesterday lying in a railway cutting near Berkhamsted, where he lived. He had gone for a walk early in the morning, and apparently he was struck by a train which he probably did not hear approaching as he was a little deaf. He suffered from sun stroke some years ago. Vice-Admiral Wintz died at Emsworth, Hants, on Monday, at the age of 83. He held three awards for gallantry in saving life.