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 20th
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
Most of Le QUEUX’s works can be found on the internet
archive:
https://archive.org/details/doctorofpimlicob00lequiala/doctorofpimlicob00lequiala/mode/2up
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