Major Charles Reginald CHENEVIX TRENCH (1906)

2/5th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)
Born 5 March 1888 in Liverpool
Killed in action 21 March 1918, aged 30
Commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France. Also commemorated on the war memorial at St Nicholas Church, Hurst, Berkshire; and on a plaque in All Saints Church, Orpington, Kent.

Charles Chenevix Trench was the second son of Revd H. Francis & Isabella Clare Chenevix Trench, of Durwood, Sandhurst, Camberley, Surrey. He married Clare Cecily, née Howard, on 28 January 1915; they had a daughter, Isabel Clare, born 4 November that year.

He was educated at Gore Court School, Tunstall, Kent, and Charterhouse, and graduated from Merton in 1909. After University he worked as a lawyer. Soon after leaving college he joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, rising to the rank of Captain.

At the outbreak of war the OTC relocated to Berkhamsted, and trained recruits. Wanting to see frontline action, Chenevix Trench joined the Sherwood Foresters; however the regiment was then sent to Ireland to quell the 1916 Easter Rising. (His sister, Cesca (Frances Georgiana), was a fervent supporter of the Nationalist cause and was in Ireland at the time; they breakfasted together while Chenevix Trench was on two days’ leave.) He was sent to France on 26 February 1917, and promoted to Major in August.

He was killed in action during the German Spring Offensive, on 21 March 1918. He was wounded twice early on in the fighting but carried on leading his men until he received his final fatal wound. He was carried on a stretcher back to the Battalion headquarters dug-out where he died. He was Mentioned in Dispatches on 7 April.