William Spottiswoode Trevor

William Spottiswoode Trevor
Born	9 October 1831 Calcutta, British India
Died	2 November 1907 (1907-11-03) (aged 76) Newport, Isle of Wight
Buried	Kensal Green Cemetery
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Bengal Army British Army
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	Bhutan War Indian Mutiny Second Anglo-Burmese War
Awards	Victoria Cross
Other work	Railway administrator

Major General William Spottiswoode Trevor VC (9 October 1831 – 2 November 1907) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Details[]

Trevor was born the son of Robert Salusbury Trevor and Mary Spottiswoode. His father, a captain with the 3rd Bengal Cavalry was killed during the First Anglo-Afghan War. Trevor, along with his mother and siblings, had accompanied his father to Afghanistan and were amongst the hostages held by the Afghans following the 1842 retreat from Kabul. They were rescued following General Pollock's reoccupation of Kabul in 1842.^[1] A younger brother was Sir Arthur Trevor.

Educated at Addiscombe Military Seminary, Trevor was 33 years old, and a major in the Bengal Engineers, Bengal Army during the Bhutan War when the following deed took place on 30 April 1865 at Dewan-Giri, Bhutan for which he was awarded the VC in a joint citation with Lieutenant James Dundas:

For their gallant conduct at the attack on the Block-house at Dewan-Giri, in Bhootan, on the 30th of April, 1865.

Major-General Tombs, C.B., V.C., the Officer in command at the time, reports that a party of the enemy, from 180 to 200 in

number, had barricaded themselves in the Block-house in question, which they continued to defend after the rest of the position had been carried, and the main body was in retreat. The Block-house, which was loop-holed, was the key of the enemy's position. Seeing no Officer of the storming party near him, and being anxious that the place should be taken immediately, as any protracted resistance might have caused the main body of the Bhooteas to rally, the British force having been fighting in a broiling sun on very steep and difficult ground for upwards of three hours, the General in command ordered these two Officers to show the way into the Block-house. They had to climb up a wall which was 14 feet high, and then to enter a house, occupied by some 200 desperate men, head foremost through an opening not more than two feet wide between the top of the wall and the roof of the Block-house. Major-General Tombs states that on speaking to the Sikh soldiers around him, and telling them in Hindoostani to swarm up the wall, none of them responded to the call, until these two Officers had shown them the way, when they followed with the greatest alacrity. Both of them were wounded.^[2]

He later achieved the rank of colonel, and retired in February 1887 with the honorary rank of major-general.^[3]

Trevor married Eliza Ann Fisher, the second daughter of the Reverend Henry Sanderson Fisher, of the Indian Ecclesiastical Service, and Charlotte Eliza Money, at St Andrews Church Darjeeling, in a ceremony conducted by the brides father, on 19 June 1858.^[4] The marriage produced 3 daughters, Mildred Charlotte Mary Trevor born 30 March 1859 in Darjeeling, and died 5 March 1860 in Dinapore, Lylee Grace Trevor born 13 April 1860 in Dinapore who died 23 January 1878 (aged 17) at St John's School for Girls, Bloomfield Terrace London, and Florence Mary Trevor, born 17 March 1862 who later married Colonel Maule Campbell Brackenbury, and lived a long life.

He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.^[5]

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum.

References[]

• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• The Sapper VCs (Gerald Napier, 1998)
• Scotland's Forgotten Valour (Graham Ross, 1995)

External links[]

• Railway links
• Royal Engineers Museum Sappers VCs
• Location of grave and VC medal (Kensal Green Cemetery)