Writing the life of a Lt in 1 Bn KRRC

[Joe Walsh]

I am trying to write up the life of the Lt. The Rt. Hon. F.S. Trench of 1 Bn KRRC who was KIA in November 1916. He was the son of the local baron (Baron Ashtown, Woodlawn, Co. Galway, Ireland). I just have a few questions that more educated people than I might be able to answer:

1. About a mile away the Duke de Stackpoole lived, and 2 of his 4 sons were killed in action. One was RFA and the other was Connaught Rangers. I wonder, considering they were of similar age and similar social status as well as going to Oxford university, would F.S. Trench likely have socialised with them often?

2. Fox hunting and pheasant shooting was apparently a big sport around here. Is there anyway I could find out of F.S. Trench participated in it and if his father or himself was the head of the hunt?

3. F.S. Trench was educated at the prestigous Magdalen College, Oxford University. His whole family was educated at Oxford and Cambridge going back generations. In those days did you have to be particularly bright to get in, or did you buy your way in? I 'm asking so I can assess whether F.S. Trench was of a greater intellect than other men of those times.

4. Is there any way that I can find out what he studied there?

5. Would it be rude of me to inquire of relatives of the Trench's, one of which I have spoken to over email, if they have the letters he had sent home and the one he had on him when he was KIA? Ive only ever looked into my own family history and am rather sensitive as to whether this would be insulting to people. The man I have spoken to is very interested in this and has requested that I forward all information I find to him.

5. I am rather confused by a certain aspect of the Woodlawn estate in general. One of the lesser Lords (Dun Sandel), upon Irish Independence, had to flee the country as the working people tore down his house. Apparently this was due to him treating people very badly and persecuting catholics. The Trench's of Woodlawn had opposed Home Rule, in fact the Baron had edited a magazine that denounced any form of Irish nationalism as treasonable. Yet with independence the family was able to continue living in Ireland and run their large estate. I can't understand this. Census records show all their servants to have been protestants. However, Lady Ashtown was supposed to have been a very decent woman even setting upa trust for Belgian refugees to come to Galway and housed over a hundred of them in Woodlawn House. She did the same thing for Polish refugees in WW2. That is the only small reason I can think of as to why, unlike the rest of the estates across the country, the Trench family was spared from reprisals after independence.

6. Why would he join the KRRC? Is there likely to be a family connection?

Thanks for the help,

Joe

[battiscombe]

The KRRC were quite a 'smart' regiment .. included Princes Leopold and Maurice Battenberg in 1914, - but would not include many university-educated officers prewar .. RFA would also attract similar families ..(private incomes to help with horses and social expenses were essential really, prewar at least) .. I know of other gentry families with brothers in both RFA and KRRC in 1914, and they may well have socialised hunting and the like (the original handwritten war diary of 1/KRRC records the wounding of an RFA officer when in the line with them who was clearly well-known to the diary writer .. the only time I have seen such a personal comment on a non-regimental casualty ..but not typed up in the official diary text!).

An RFA officer Rory Macleod left a memoir of prewar RFA`days in Ireland where hunting was a major pastime of many young artillery officers with local hunts, and seen as excellent field training (cited in Lyn Macdonalds 1914, I seem to remember). Magdalen College would record the undergraduate career of the man in their archives .. and may well be able to help ..

david

[kenf48]

2. 'Crasher' Trench was master of the East Galway Hunt 1935 - 45

http://eastgalwayhunt.com/history.html

Ken