Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/545

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Trevor
535
Tristram

known as the Eden Gardens. In Feb. 1862 he officiated as superintending engineer of the northern circle, and completed the Ganges and Darjeeling road to the foot of the mountains. In May 1863 he was appointed controller of accounts, and improved the method of keeping them.

In Feb. 1865 Trevor joined the Bhutan field force as field engineer under Major-general (Sir) Henry Tombs [q. v.]. At the attack on Dewan-Giri on 30 April following, Trevor and a brother officer, James Dundas [q.v.], greatly distinguished themselves in forcing their way alone ahead of their Sikh soldiers into a barely accessible blockhouse, the key of the enemy's position, in which some 180 to 200 of the enemy had barricaded themselves after the rest of the position had been carried. His gallantry was rewarded by the V.C. He was suffering from illness at the time, and was five times wounded in the desperate encounter. After being treated at Gauhati he went on long leave of absence, and on his return became superintending engineer at the Bengal Presidency. He was made brevet major on 15 May 1866, and received the medal and clasp for his services in the campaign.

Promoted lieut.-colonel on 19 Aug. 1874, Trevor was appointed special chief engineer for the famine relief works north of the Ganges. He received the thanks of the government for his work. After serving as inspector-general of military works he was transferred as chief engineer to Central India, and in Dec. 1875 was appointed chief engineer of British Burma. In this post, which he held for five years, he helped to draft a scheme for the reorganisation of the engineer establishment, for which he was again thanked by the government. He attained the rank of brevet colonel on 19 Aug. 1879. From Feb. 1882 to Feb. 1887 Trevor was secretary to the government of India in the public works department. He retired with the honorary rank of major-general on 20 Feb. 1887. He was a steady shot with a revolver, to which on several occasions he owed his life, an expert swordsman, and a daring rider. He died on 2 Nov. 1907 at 58 Victoria Street, London, and was buried at Kensal Green.

He married on 19 June 1858, at Darjeeling, India, Eliza Ann, daughter of the Rev. H. Fisher, Indian chaplain. She died in 1863, leaving two daughters, the elder of whom died in 1878. The younger daughter, Florence Mary, married in 1882 Colonel Maule Campbell Brackenbury, C.S.I., royal engineers.

A painting by Miss G. Brackenbury (1901) belongs to his daughter.

[Royal Engineers' Records; Royal Engineers' Journal, 1908; The Times, 4 and 7 Nov. 1907; Vibart's Addiscombe; India Office Records; private information.]

R. H. V.


TRISTRAM, HENRY BAKER (1822–1906), divine and naturalist, born at Eglingham, Northumberland, on 11 May 1822, was eldest son of Henry Baker Tristram, vicar of Eglingham, by Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Smith. A younger brother, Thomas Hutchinson (b. 25 Sept. 1825), an ecclesiastical lawyer, became chancellor of London and many other dioceses, and died on 8 March 1912. Educated first at Durham school, Henry matriculated on 9 Nov. 1839 as a scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. with a second class in classics in 1844, proceeding M.A. in 1846. He was ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846, and was curate of Morchard Bishop (1845–6). Threatened with lung trouble, he went to Bermuda, where he was secretary to Sir William Henry Elliott [q. v.], the governor, acting also as naval and military chaplain, 1847–9. There he took up the study of birds and shells. In 1849 he became rector of Castle Eden, co. Durham, and held the living till 1860; but ill-health drove him to Algeria for the winters of 1855–6, 1856–7. He penetrated far into the desert, made an ornithological collection, and gathered material for his first book, 'The Great Sahara' (1860). The following winter he visited Palestine and Egypt, and, on returning, became master of Greatham Hospital and vicar of Greatham, co, Durham. Revisiting Palestine in 1863–4, he produced on his return the first of his books on the Holy Land. In 1868 he received from Edinburgh University the hon. degree of LL.D., and was elected F.R.S. In 1870 Tristram was made hon. canon of Durham and canon residentiary in 1874, when he left Greatham.

In 1879 Tristram declined Lord Beaconsfield's offer of the Anglican bishopric in Jerusalem, although he visited Palestine again in 1880–1, in 1894, and in 1897. During 1891 he travelled in Japan, China, and North- West America. In ritual controversy at home, while his convictions were strongly protestant, he associated himself with the moderate evangelicals. But his chief interest lay in the work for the Church Missionary Society, and he acted for forty years as its representative in the county of Durham. An enthusiastic