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LIEUT.-COM. SMITH-DORRIEN
Lieutenant-Commander Henry Theophilus Smith-Dorrien, R.N., retired, died on May 17 at West Hampstead, in his 82nd year.
He was the second son of Colonel Robert Algernon Smith-Dorrien, of Haresfoot, Herts, late 3rd Light Dragoons and 16th Lancers, and brother of Rear-Admiral Arthur Hale Smith-Dorrien and the late General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.
His eldest brother, Mr. T. A. Smith-Dorrien, succeeded his uncle at Tresco Abbey, in the Scilly Isles, and Became Smith-Dorrien-Smith.
Henry was born on May 8, 1850, and entered the Britannia as a naval cadet in June, 1863.
He first went to sea in the old two-decker H.M.S. Revenge in the Mediterranean.
Later he served under the Duke of Edinburgh in H.M.S. Galatea, which sailed around the world.
He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1875 and in the same year in the Scrapis when the Prince of Wales (King Edward) visited India.
In 1876 he was made Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral Algernon de Horsey, on the Pacific Station, in the iron screw frigate Shah, and in the next year he took
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part in the engagement between this ship and the Peruvian rebel turret ship Huascar.
He drove her under the shelter of the town of Ylo, and next day she surrendered to the Peruvian Squadron.
In 1882, during the war in Egypt, Smith-Dorrien was a lieutenant of the Invincible.
Before the bombardment of Alexandria he darkened his face, disguised himself as an Arab fisherman, landed, and went round some of the Egyptian forts.
Returning to his ship, he was able to report that the Egyptians were remounting their guns.
The report was sent to Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who eventually stated in his dispatch that it was on receipt of Lieutenant Smith-Dorrien's message that he began the bombardment.
It was a coincidence that, whereas Lieutenant Smith-Dorrien was more or less responsible for the beginning of the war in Egypt, his soldier brother it was who, with six of the Sudanese Battalion, was first to enter the precincts of the Mahdi's tomb at Khartoum and eventually to hoist the flag at Fashoda in the presence of Lord Kitchener, which incident concluded the war.
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