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'''Charles''' Pocklington '''Chenevix Trench''' (29 June 1914 - 26 November 2003<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1448007/Charles-Chenevix-Trench.html|title=Obituary - Charles Pocklington Chevenix Trench}}</ref>) was a British Indian army officer, popular historian and writer.

==Life==
He was born in [[Simla]], India as the only son of Sir Richard Chenevix Trench, a member of the [[Indian Political Service]].
Sir Richard was grandson of [[Richard Chenevix Trench]] (1807–1886), [[Archbishop of Dublin]]. Charles was a cousin of [[Anthony Chenevix-Trench]], later headmaster of [[Eton College]].
After studying at [[Winchester College]] and [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], Charles received a regular Indian Army commission in 1934, joined [[Hodson's Horse]] in 1936 and became a fluent [[Pashto]] speaker. During the final weeks of [[1st Army (United Kingdom)|1st Army]]'s [[Tunisian Campaign|advance into Tunisia]] in 1943 he was attached to the [[12th Lancers]].

In 1944, whilst attending a course at [[Benevento]], he went to visit another Hodson's Horse officer who was a staff officer in [[8th Indian Division]]. His friend put him on attachment to a Pathan company in the 1st Battalion of the [[12th Frontier Force Regiment]]. He won the [[Military Cross]] for his conduct leading the company in a night attack on the final ridge held by the Germans on the outskirts of [[Assisi]] during the push against the [[Gothic Line]] in northern Italy. He then returned to Hodson's Horse until 1946 before spending the last eighteen months of British rule in India in the Indian Political Service. 1946 also saw his marriage to Jane Gretton, daughter of an Irish Catholic - this marriage produced two daughters and a son (the son predeceased him) and ended in divorce. He had two more daughters with his second wife Mary Kirkbride, who survived him

Next he became [[District Commissioner (British Colonial)|district commissioner]] of the [[North Eastern Province (Kenya)|Northern Frontier District]] of [[Kenya Colony|Kenya]] and then in [[Nanyuki]]. He learned [[Swahili language|Swahili]] and [[Somali language|Somali]] and was seconded to [[Nairobi]] to help cope with the [[Mau Mau Emergency]]. Kenya gained independence in 1963 and he took up teaching at [[Millfield]] in Somerset, remaining there until 1969, when he retired to [[Nenagh]] in County Tipperary to focus on writing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/soldier-and-author-who-always-counted-himself-as-irish-1.398097|title=Soldier and author who always counted himself as Irish|date=6 December 2003|publisher=Irish Times|access-date=2018-04-25}}</ref> As well as his books, he wrote as a book reviewer for the ''[[Irish Times]]'' and the ''[[Irish Independent]]'' after being recruited by [[Bruce Arnold (author)|Bruce Arnold]]. He produced a monthly article for ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', using the pseudonym "The Looker On". He is buried in the churchyard at [[Borrisnafarney]].

==Works==
*''My Mother Told Me'', 1958, on the travels of his maternal grandmother
*''Portrait of a Patriot'', 1962, a biography of [[John Wilkes]]
*''The Poacher and the Squire'', 1964, a history of poaching and game preservation in England
*''The Royal Malady'', 1964, a study of [[George III of the United Kingdom#William Pitt|George III's first bout of madness in 1788-89]]
*''The Desert's Dusty Face'', 1964, describing his career in Kenya
*''The Western Rising'', 1969, an account of the [[Monmouth Rebellion]]
*''The Fly-Fisher and His Rod'', 1969
*''The Shooter and His Gun'', 1969
*''A History of Horsemanship'', 1970
*''George II'', 1973, a biography of [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]
*''A History of Angling'', 1974
*''Charley Gordon: an eminent Victorian reassessed'', 1978, a biography of [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]]
*''The Road to Khartoum: A Life of General Charles Gordon'', 1979, another biography of Gordon
*''A History of Marksmanship'', 1980
*''The Great Dan'', 1984, a biography of the Irish nationalist leader [[Daniel O'Connell]]
*''The Frontier Scouts'', 1985
*''The Viceroy's Agent'', 1987, on [[Louis Mountbatten]]'s time as [[Viceroy of India]]
*''The Indian Army and the King's Enemies, 1900-1947'', 1988
*''Grace's Card - Irish Catholic Landlords 1690-1800'', 1997

He was a contributor to ''The Treasury of Horses'' (1972).

==References==
<references/>

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chenevix Trench, Charles Pocklington}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:Trench family|Charles]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:English biographers]]
[[Category:20th-century British writers]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:1950s in Kenya]]
[[Category:1960s in Kenya]]
[[Category:British people of the Mau Mau Uprising]]
[[Category:Colonial governors and administrators of Kenya]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]
[[Category:20th-century English educators]]
[[Category:English military historians]]
[[Category:English medical historians]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:Male biographers]]
[[Category:George III of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Monmouth Rebellion]]
[[Category:Indian Political Service officers]]

Charles Chenevix Trench - Revision history

Bot at 22:04, 4 May 2022