Frederick TRENDALL (1890-1940): A New Record

 

Sometimes a very short document can carry a heavy weight.  During a recent visit to the National Archives (TNA) I noticed that there was a new catalogue entry for my Grandfather, Frederick TRENDALL (1890-1940), in the WO 416 series.  This series contains the Prisoner of War index cards created by the Germans during the Second World War.  They were seized at the end of the war and are now, after many years, are available to view.

Frederick TRENDALL never was a POW but the cards were also used to record the details of deceased soldiers when there was any identification.  The cards can only be viewed under supervision.  I went into the ‘invigilated’ room at the TNA and the record card was inside an envelope inside a plastic box.  It seemed strange to be handling a document that had been filled up by a German clerk/soldier in May 1940.

The record does not add much to what is already known.  It records his name and rank, gives the location of his burial and suggests that the burial was overseen by a British Army padre (presumably a POW) although the German translation is approximate.  The card is stamped with a black cross to indicate that the subject is deceased.  His grave is now marked by a Commonwealth War Graves headstone in Calais South Cemetery.  I visited the cemetery about 30 years ago – I will try and go again soon.

War is a bureaucratic process but behind every document there was a real person and a real family.

 

Philip Trendall

August 2025

 

Note:  Document Reference:  The National Archives:  WO 416 366/141 viewed and copied 21 August 2025

Fictional Trendalls

 

It is not often that one comes across our surname (TRENDALL) in works of fiction.  I recently finished a newly published novel: The Reservoir of Greed (Sound of Jealousy 2) by Rod LEWIS that features a baddie called Steve TRENDALL.  An unattractive character who spies for a foreign state.  It can’t be easy for authors to think of names for their characters but as I know the author it is at least clear where he got the idea from!

More of a mystery are the works of William Le QUEUX.  He was writing at the beginning of the 20^th century and, for a while,  was a very popular author of spy and detective fiction.  His most famous book: The Invasion of 1910, With A Full Account of the Siege of London, was based on the idea of a German invasion of the UK that had been enabled by the work of the Kaiser’s spies.    It was published in 1906 and was one of the causes of the wave of the ‘spy mania’ that swept the country in the years before 1914.

Le QUEUX was not a very talented writer.  His plots are predictable and his dialogue wooden.  His habit of employing an exclamation mark several times on every page makes one question what his agent and editor were contributing to the production of his books.

Le Queux wrote the Doctor of Pimlico (Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime) just after the First World War.  It is the story of an evil doctor who blackmails a retired General and his daughter whilst running an international gang of criminals.  He is thwarted by the hero of book, a novelist and an archetype of the English hero (square jawed etc).  This chap has, for reasons that are not well explained, at least two surnames and appears to work closely with Scotland Yard and other law enforcement agencies.  His contact at the Yard is Herbert TRENDALL.

TRENDALL is described thus:

“He was a marvellously alert man, an unusually good linguist, and a cosmopolitan to his finger-tips. He had been a detective-sergeant in the T Division of Metropolitan Police for years before his appointment as director of that section. He knew more of the criminal undercurrents on the Continent than any living Englishman, and it was he who furnished accurate information to the Surete in Paris concerning the great Humbert swindle” (P235).

He has done well as a Detective Sergeant as he has a secretary, a large department and an office that is described as:

“the big, airy, official-looking room, the two long windows of which looked out over Westminster Bridge” (p229)

TRENDALL’s job is not defined although there are hints that he does something secret.  However at the end of the book when he has just interviewed the evil doctor in Chelmsford prison he is described as being the Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department.

We can’t know where Le QUEUX got the name Herbert TRENDALL.  There were a few people in circulation with that name at the time he was writing The Doctor of Pimlico.  Of course he could have made it up by combining a popular first name with a surname he had come across in his daily business.  My guess is that he had heard of Herbert TRENDALL/TRENDELL a senior official in the Lord Chamberlain’s Office who was in charge of the rules around the dress to be worn at the Royal court.  He had given evidence at the trial of a suffragette who had been arrested at the Tower of London and his name (using various spellings) was, for a while, all over the newspapers.

Le QUEUX’s novel is not entirely without merit.  He manages to slip in a heavy but very thinly veiled criticism of Lloyd George’s habit of selling honours.

There must be other examples of the use of our family name in fiction.  Any suggestions?

 

Philip Trendall

Bramfield

August 2025

 

Notes

Rod Lewis’s Book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Jealousy-Reservoir-Greed-ebook/dp/B0FD8Z32LM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TET54UEKYR9H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.E4eGHjp25-ubPoTyZFkZiN3801qbMkryHsXHu7nYRwZRmeRhheV42uaQ8Z1IggS-7XpMCPbKPFJvq4lCoIzTiAzea6puRXU95Mwbf8eYe-aqzC9lMBcT29eiqrAY2goJQUqB5sNc_RcYS0srNdOdAE7eAugYkDOadKK_bP8f3SxessEYVaoSopAXApJuoJlq-HvVrzZv2zW0RnTzHVOj2YQoaxhQSxfiy6Qw1ncLPos.8MbqMJ7Kr54czjBNNEzd1WYZSEMINbuYdcbmAjlj2sY&dib_tag=se&keywords=rod+lewis&qid=1755451452&sprefix=rod+lewis%2Caps%2C113&sr=8-1

Most of Le QUEUX’s works can be found on the internet archive:

https://archive.org/details/doctorofpimlicob00lequiala/doctorofpimlicob00lequiala/mode/2up

 

 

 

 

 

'POP’ SCOTT – A COUNTRY SERVED

 

George SCOTT 1906-1971

I remember my Grandfather, George SCOTT (1906-1971) for many reasons.  He was a jovial sort of chap who liked a cigarette and a drink.  He spoke with a strong Glasgow accent despite having lived in London for many years.  I always knew him as ‘POP’.  He was a generous Grandfather even though he was not wealthy – indeed his generosity was the source of several problems.

I knew he was my Grandfather – the father of my Mother (Jean Duncan McGAVIN/SCOTT/PALMER/TRENDALL1924-1982), but if a future generation follows the paper trail he would not appear as according to my Mother’s birth certificate she was the daughter of John Simpson McGAVIN (1895-1940), the first husband of my Grandmother – Helen Kirk McBeth DUNCAN (Nellie) (1896-1971).  Everybody knew that George SCOTT was her biological Father – and much family pain ensued.  By 1925 George SCOTT and Nellie McGAVIN (as she was at the time) were living together.  They could not marry until the John McGAVIN died, which he did in 1940.  By that time George and Nellie had two more children: George SCOTT (1928-2009) and Andrew Nicol SCOTT (1931-1931).  Andrew was given the middle name NICOL after George SCOTT’s (B1906) Mother.  He was severely disabled and lived only a few months.  I recall my Mother describing how shocked she was when she saw the deformities that her brother was born with.  She said that he was only expected to live a few hours and she also recounted how caring her parents were with him.

George SCOTT (B1906) worked as a labourer, a miner and as a ship’s steward/cook (including on board the famous Athenia which was the first British ship sunk, with a great loss of life by a German U Boat).  In later life and for many years he worked at the London Hospital as a porter.  I don’t recall much being mentioned about his service the Second World War.  There was a family story about him singing ‘We’ll Meet Again’ when being waved off at Glasgow Central Station and another tale that he was always slightly relieved at the end of his leave from the army to get away from the bombing in London.  He used to say with a smile that he was safer in the army!

I recently tracked down a copy of his army record via a Freedom of Information Request to the National Archives.  The record added to my knowledge of a man I only knew when I was a child. 

He enlisted within six weeks of the start of the war.  He chose the army rather than the navy despite (or perhaps because of) his experience of passenger ships. Throughout his service he described his nationality as English.  This is common in records of the time when ‘English’ and ‘British’ were used interchangeably.  Those were the days when the Scottish Nationalists were seen as a dangerous, anti war, fringe group.  He joined in Glasgow as a single man (no mention of living with Nellie) but other records before they were married in 1941 do describe her as his wife.  He was noted as being as 5’7 ½ tall, with hazel eyes and a fresh complexion.  I recall that he had a tattoo on his arm and this is described in his papers as being of two clasped hands.  A common design among sailors.  He joined the Pioneer Corp as a labourer.  Within a month of joining up he was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).  He remained there until the final evacuations from the continent in June 1940.  As a member of the pioneer corps it is likely that he saw a considerable amount of action.  He was attached to various regiments including the Middlesex Regiment, RAOC and the Royal Fusiliers.  Later he transferred to the Royal Artillery.  During his time in the army ‘at home’ he served at various locations.  A week after D Day he was back in Europe where he remained until September.  He was demobbed in November 1944 and returned to his family, who were by this time living at 89 Cambridge Heath Road London – a flat I well remember.

He was a well behaved soldier for the most part with only minor deviations from the straight and narrow.  

During his first stint in France he would have served in proximity to both my Father (Frederick Alfred TRENDALL 1914-1983) and to my other Grandfather (Frederick TRENDALL 1890-1940).  But of course he would not have known them as my Mother did not meet my Father for another decade and a half.

On returning to the UK in 1944 his commanding officer in the 496^th Field Battery, Royal Artillery wrote:

“This soldier served throughout the campaign in NW Europe and was first class.  He is very loyal, reliable and willing, and cheerful in difficult circumstances.  He always did his job efficiently and conscientiously, and no hardship or difficulty ever got him down”

Not a bad set of comments and the description reminds me of the man I briefly knew.

George SCOTT - Medal Application Card 1956?

In many ways George SCOTT’s record of service was very similar to that of many other men who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.  Together with the men and women who served on the Home Front it was typical of a generation that has now nearly passed.  What a generation! when ordinary people did amazing things.  A generation that bequeathed to us a life of peace and comfort.  A life they could only have dreamt off.  We must not forget our debt to those that endured so much for our freedom.

 

Philip Trendall

August 2025