User:Demiurge1000/Charles Chenevix-Trench

Charles Pocklington Chenevix-Trench (29 June 1919 – 26 November 2003) was a British author and writer. He was born in British India, educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War. He then worked in the Indian Political Service just before the Partition of India, prior to serving as district commissioner in the colonial government of British Kenya for approximately a decade and a half. After six years teaching at Millfield School, he then retired to the Republic of Ireland to focus on his writing. His books were already widely published by this time, and he wrote several more, as well as writing extensively for newspapers and magazines.

Family and education
Chenevix-Trench's great grandfather was Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886), Archbishop of Dublin. His grandfather Charles (1839-1933) took part in the Crimean War at the age of seventeen, and then served as an aide-de-camp to the Governor of Gibraltar, before working in the "International Society for the relief of the sick and wounded", which later became the Red Cross. This same grandfather was still described as holding the rank of Colonel in 1915, when he was bequeathed property by the vicar of Ilminster on the understanding that it should remain with "the lineal descendants of the late Archdeacon Trench". His father was Sir Richard Henry Chenevix Trench (1876-1954), who fought in the Boxer Rebellion as well as later serving in the Indian Political Service.

Chenevix-Trench was born in Simla, the summertime capital of British India. He was sent to be educated at Winchester College. After his first year there he became concerned that he had not yet been caned, and that this might make his fellow pupils consider him to be unduly delicate. He therefore embarked on a campaign of breaking minor rules concerning such matters as dress and appearance, until eventually he received the required caning, which he described as "disagreeable" but not an experience that caused permanent harm. In his later years at the school he spent most of his free time fishing, and remarked that his peers did not consider this eccentricity a matter for reproach. After Winchester, he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College.

Military service
Chenevix-Trench had a successful but unorthodox military career. He initially took a commission in the British Indian cavalry regiment Hodson's Horse, based in the Middle East at the start of World War Two in 1939. He then unofficially joined the 12th Lancers during the final parts of the Tunisian Campaign, before going on to join, again unofficially, the Pathan company of the 1st/12th (Northwest) Frontier Force Regiment. He took command of the company for several weeks after its commander was killed, and won the Military Cross for his gallantry and leadership near Assisi as the Allies fought their way northwards through Italy. He returned to the Middle east to rejoin his actual regiment, and served until 1946 just after the end of the war.

Colonial India and Kenya
Chenevix-Trench followed his father's footsteps by joining the Indian Political Service once his time in the army was completed. This was not to last long however, as the Partition of India and end of British rule in 1947 brought the job to an end. He then moved on to become district commissioner in the government of British Kenya; his skill at learning new languages, in this case including Swahili and Somali, was valuable. During the Mau Mau emergency, he was appointed GSO 2 (Civil) to the Director of Operations in the capital Nairobi, to advise on military matters related to dealing with the insurgency.

The Daily Telegraph later described an incident towards the end of Chenevix-Trench's tenure. The colonial authorities were instructed to carry out a census of the Kenyan population in order to assist the native government that would take over after the British left. This included the King's African Rifles. Chenevix-Trench, who was serving as returning officer, was asked how the officials should deal with the four riflemen who had given their names as "Agatha Christie", and five who declared they were "Jesus Christ". Chenevix-Trench, interrupted from "writing an article about Jacobean table manners", dismissed the crisis by nonchalantly responding "Doesn't matter a bugger provided you don't call any of them Son of God!"

Later life
After the independence of Kenya, Chenevix-Trench was offered a job teaching at Eton College by his cousin, Anthony Chenevix-Trench. He declined, instead taking up a teaching position at Millfield School, where he spent six years teaching "English, Swahili, Urdu, history, symbolic logic and polo". At the end of his teaching career he moved to Nenagh in the Republic of Ireland, where he had a farm and also indulged his enthusiasm for fishing, as well as continuing his writing career.