The Smith-Dorrien Monument is an outstanding piece of neoclassical monumental sculpture depicting a kneeling female figure in mourning. It commemorates members of the Smith and Smith-Dorrien families, both prominent in Berkhamsted.
The inscriptions reveal the close connections of Bekhamsted with the Isles of Scilly, bearing the names of two Lords Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly Augustus John Smith (1804-1872, also M.P. for Truro) and Thomas Algernon Smith Dorrien (1846-1918).
On the right panel is a touching astronomical tribute toPauline Wilhelmina who died in 1835 aged 15 –
“Bright and brief was her course as a meteor’s vanishing into heaven”.
Another notable family member, the World War One army officer General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, is not mentioned on this monument, but his grave lies across the road from this church in the detached churchyard, which can be approached along Rectory Lane and is often referred to locally as the Rectory Lane Cemetery.
