Lieutenant Henry William Bloomfield TRENCH (1873–1898)
Henry William Bloomfield Trench was born at Cloughjordan, Tipperary, Ireland on 17 May 1873, the son of Henry Bloomfield Trench and Jessie Maria Rawlins.
At the time of the 1891 census Henry (17) was a boarder at Cheltenham College (Boyne House). He went straight from school to be a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and in December 1892 he passed the Qualifying Examination for Commissions into the Cavalry and Infantry.
In July 1893 he was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, and served for three years at Bareilly, and then proceeded on leave to England.
He rejoined when the Battalion was ordered on service in 1897, and was promoted to a Lieutenant in March that year. On 20 August 1897 he was one of eight officers ordered to leave for India immediately, departing from London the same day and travelling by express route via Brindisi.
He served through the Mohmand Campaign, and then took part in the Tirah Campaign, but died of pneumonia supervening on enteric fever at the age of 24 on 29 January 1898 at Landi Kotal while on active service. The Times reported on 2 February that his body was sent into Peshawar for interment the next day. The following Order was published by the Officer Commanding:
It is with deep regret that the Commanding Officer announces the death of Lieut. Trench in camp to-day; of a most amiable disposition, a cheery comrade, a good officer, liked by all, he will long be missed and mourned for in the Regiment.
His death notice in the Morning Post on 2 February 1898 read:
TRENCH.—On the 29th ult., at Lundi [sic] Kotal, H. W. B. Trench, aged twenty-four, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, eldest and fondly-loved son of H. Bloomfield and Jessie Trench, Huntington, Portarlington.
His effects came to £110 12s. 4d., and his executor was his father, Henry Bloomfield Trench, Esq. His home address at death was given as Portarlington, Queen’s County (now County Laois), Ireland.
His obituary appeared in the Oxfordshire Light Infantry Chronicle of 1898, p. 279 (with portrait on facing page).
