Arthur Charles Trevor KCSI (1841 - 1920)

Born 6 Apr 1841 in Jellahabad, Afghanistan

Ancestors

Husband of Florence Mary (Prescott) Trevor — married 29 Oct 1867 in St Paul's Church, Poona, India

Descendants

Died 25 Oct 1920 at age 79 in Harcourt Terrace, West Brompton, England

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Biography

Sir Arthur Charles Trevor KCSI (6 April 1841 – 25 October 1920) was a British civil servant and colonial administrator in British India.

Trevor was born in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, the son of Robert Salusbury Trevor ( Robert Trevor) and Mary Spottiswoode.

He was educated at St John's Foundation School, Leatherhead, and Lincoln College, Oxford before joining the Indian Civil Service in 1861.^{[1] [2]} He served in various customs and revenue related roles in India, before serving as the Commissioner for Sind between 1889 and 1891. In 1894 Trevor was made Companion of the Order of the Star of India.^[3]

He became a member of the Council of Bombay in 1892, and between 1895 and 1901 he served as member of the Supreme Council for Railways and Public Works. He was made Knight Companion of the Order of the Star of India in the 1898 New Year Honours. ^[4][5]

In 1867 he married Florence Mary Prescott, daughter of Colonel Cyril Jackson Prescott. ^[6]

(Details of his family to be uploaded shortly)

He passed away in 1920.^[7]

Sources

• "India Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGXG-J35 : 10 February 2018), Arthur Charles Trevor in entry for Jessie Mabel Trevor, 14 Mar 1875; citing Matheran, Bombay, India, reference ; index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 523,851.

1. ↑ St John's School, Leatherhead. School Register 1852-1904
2. ↑ Hayavadana Rao, Trevor, Sir Arthur Charles, from The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915).
3. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 26516. p. 3117. 26 may 1894.
4. ↑ C. Hayavadana Rao, Trevor, Sir Arthur Charles, from The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915).
5. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 26925. p. 1. 1 January 1898.
6. ↑ C. Hayavadana Rao, Trevor, Sir Arthur Charles, from The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915)
7. ↑ London Times, October 25, 1920, page 15 column c

Obituary London Times October 25, 1920

Sir Arthur Trevor - A Link with the First Afghan War The death of Sir Arthur Charles Trevor, KCSI, which took place at his home in Harcourt Terrace, West Brompton, S.W., from heart-failure, in his 80th year, severs the last remaining direct link of this generation with the First Afghan War of 1838-1842. His father was a victim of the Kabul treachery, and he himself as an infant was in the terrible march of the women and children after the garrison had been overwhelmed. His father, Captain R.S. Trevor, 3rd Bengal Cavalry, was in the army of occupation left behind by Sir John Keane, and, like many other officers, was accompanied by his wife. Their second son, William, afterwards General Sir W.S. Trevor, V.C., Bengal Engineers (1831-1907) was with them, and on April 6, 1841, the boy Arthur Charles was born at Jallalabad, where General Knott's forces held the key to the Khyber Pass. Captain Trevor was on the staff of our envoy Sir William Macnaghten on the fateful December 23, 1841, for conferences with Dost Mohammed's son, Akhbar Khan who treacherously shot our Envoy through the body. Each of the three attendants on him was pinioned and placed on horseback behind a captor, who bore him off swiftly towards a neighbouring fort. Bands of furious Afghans, armed with swords, guns or bludgeons, pressed upon the horsemen. Lawrence and Mackenzie go through their perilous ride, and lived to tell the tale after liberation. Trevor, slipping off his horse, was cut to pieces by the long Afghan knives. Only a fortnight later, on January 6, 1842, after a convention to evancuate the country had been signed, the British garrison, still numbering 4,500 soldiers ( of whom 600 were Europeans), with some 12,000 dependants and followers, marched out of camp. Mrs Trevor, with her infant boy, was in a train of dhoolies bearing the women and children. The winter was severe, the troops demoralized, the march a mass of confusion and massacre, and the force was finally overwhelmed in the Jagdalak Pass. Only one man, Dr Brydon, escaped to reach Jallalabad, wounded and half dead. Mrs Trevor (who showed wonderful courage and resource) and her boys were among the 95 prisoners who were recovered some months later - all that remained of the march. Arthur Trevor has been the only remaining member of the band for the last 10 years, the penultimate survivor, Mrs Baker, mother of the late Sir Edward Baker, last Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, having died at the end of September, 1910. Arthur Trevor, of course, had no memories of the agonies through which his seniors passed, and he lived to attain high distinction in the Indian Civil Service. He was educated as St John's Foundation School and Trinity and Lincoln Colleges, Oxford and was a scholar of Lincoln. He arrived in Bombay in 1861, and after due novitiate filled many important posts, including the provincial Commissionership of Customs, Salt, Opium, and Abkari, the Commissionersip in Sinde, and was British delegate for the Portugese treaty in regard to fiscal and other relations with Goa and the Lusitanian footholds in India. From November, 1892, in Lord Harris's time, he was the revenue member of the Bombay Government. He went to Simla in April, 1895, to act as Public Works Member of the Government of India, and in the following year was appointed thereto for the quinquennial term. In this office he was able to further the irrigational advance of Sind, on the necessity for which, when Commissioner there, he laid great stress. He received his knighthood in 1898. In 1917 Sir Arthur celebrated his golden wedding with Florence Mary, second daughter of Colonel C.J. Prescott, Bombay Staff Corps, and she died in the following year. Their eldest daughter has for years been the devoted companion of her father; another, Mrs Limerick, is the wife of a clergyman; and another is the widow of Sir John Lewis Jenkins, who died when Home Member of Lord Hardinge's Government. The eldest son, Colonel A Prescott Trevor, Indian Political Service, was for the greater part of the war on special duty in the Persian Gulf; another son is traffic manager of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway; and another, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was killed in France in the trenches. The funeral service will be held at St Mary Boltons at 11.30 am to-morrow, and the interment at Kensal Green at 12.30.