Trevor H S Lt Royal Engineers

Trevor H S Lt Royal Engineers

Trevor H S Lt Royal Engineers

Source : The Sphere 18th Sep 1915

Trevor H S Lt Royal Engineers

TREVOR, HARRY SPOTTISWOODE, Lieut., Royal Engineers, s. of Sir Arthur Charles Trevor, K.C.S.I., late of the Indian C.S., Revenue Member of the Bombay Government (1892-95) and Public Works Member of the Government of India (1896-1901), by his wife, Florence Mary, 2nd dau. of Col. Cyril Jackson Prescott, Bombay S.C., and grandson of Captain Robert Salusbury Trevor, 3rd Bengal Cavalry (who was murdered at Kabul in Dec. 1841, with the British Envoy, Sir William Macnaghten); b. Karachi, India, 19 July, 1899; educ. Marlborough College, where he was in the sixth form, Prefect and Head of his house, and a member of the house and school football teams, and the School Shooting Eight. From Marlborough he passed direct into Woolwich, became a member of R.M.A. Football XV, and gained his commission in the R.E., after an 18 months course, 1 Oct. 1909. After the usual period of training at Chatham he was ordered to India, served for a time in the Military Works Department at Jullunder, in the Panjab, and was then transferred to the Engineering Staff of the North- Western State Railway at Lahore, and promoted Lieut. 28 Jan. 1912.

On the outbreak of the war he was attached to the 1st K.G.’s O. Sappers and Miners, and proceeded with the 4th Field Company of the battn. as part of the Meerut Brigade to France, where he landed in Oct. 1914, and where he served, throughout the fighting at Givenchy, Festubert, Neuve Chapelle, and elsewhere on the front between La Bassée and Lille, till he was killed in action in the trenches near Laventie, 15 Aug. 1915. Buried in the British Cemetery at Vieille Chapelle; unm.

He was mentioned in Despatches, 30 Nov. 1915. General Nanton, C.R.E., Indian Contingent (under whom Lieut. Trevor had served in the Military Depart- ment in India, as well as at the front), wrote: “I have watched your son since he was with us in Jullunder. In this war I have noted his bravery and skill on so many occasions. We have lost a brave and good officer. He was buried with our other R.E. officers at Vieille Chapelle. He was shot whilst arranging a fixed rifle rest with his usual care, and he did not suffer for an instant”; and Col. Twining, late C.R. E. Meerut Division: “Your son worked under my orders from the time he came to France until March last. I had a high opinion of him as an officer and a strong regard for him as an individual, and I deplore his loss to the Service as well as to his relations and friends. He went through much hard and dangerous work-never spared himself in the slightest and was always cheery and ready for anything. I remember one occasion in particular last Dec. when I had to send him with another young officer out on a very difficult and dangerous task-they had been out through very severe fighting for 36 hours consecutively and were very much done, but your lad stuffed a little food into his pockets and went off again, full of cheer, with a smile. You will be glad to hear of this- it was his usual attitude and we have lost a valuable officer and a much-loved comrade.”

The late Col. Davidson Houston, Commanding 58th Rifles F.F., also wrote: “I trust you will excuse an entire stranger writing to you, but on behalf of both my officers and myself I wish to tender our deepest sympathy with you in the loss of your son last month. He was, when he met his death, working in my section of the front line, as he had frequently done before, and I had always found him a most able and hard working adviser on technical points connected with the defences-always cheerful, always ready to help, never sparing himself, we shall miss him greatly and the R.E.’s have lost one of their most promising young officers. Your son had been lunching with me and discussing a rifle rest he had invented, a specimen of which he had had made and given to my regiment. He said he would like to test this particular specimen as he had not had time to do so before sending it to us. He asked if he might use my observation post to shoot from and he and my adjutant went there for the purpose. The post is raised up on a platform. Your son raised his head to look over the little breast- work and was immediately shot. We much regretted being unable, owing to the Military situation, to attend his funeral and mark our respect for him as a soldier and a comrade.”

“An officer of high professional promise, he was also a music and book lover, a talented designer and draftsman, and had a somewhat notable turn for the devising of contrivances I for the further discomfiture of the enemy,” to use the words of a brother officer. One of the first, if not absolutely the first, trench mortar used by the British, to counter the German Minnenwerfer, was made on his initiative and under his orders, of 9 inch iron piping, in the company’s workshops, and proved very effective, and it was in arranging to test a portable contrivance of his own for enabling fire to be kept up on any desired point in the dark and without exposure, that he met his death. With reference to this contrivance the O.C. 2nd Black Watch wrote in a note found among Lieut. Trevor’s papers: “We have tried your rifle rest, and found it very good.”

Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1

 

Posted in Royal Engineers.