William Hugh Cornwallis Trousdell

Key Information

Name: William Hugh Cornwallis Trousdell
DoB: January 9 1879
DoD: March 28 1915
Academic Career: CGS 1893 – 1898   Head Master’s Scholar, 1895. Queen’s Coll.,Oxford, 1898; Hastings Exhib. in Classics, 1897;3rd Class Clas. Mod., 1900; B.A. (4th Class Mod.Hist.), 1903. Colonial Civil Service.
Biographical Information:

  • Hugh was the second child and eldest son of 15 children born to Captain William Blakeney Persse Trousdell, of Cobtree,Boxley, Maidstone, Kent. Three of his brothers also attended Carlisle grammar school. All four served during the Great War: Hugh and Charles were in Nigeria; John in India; and Maurice was fighting in Belgium.

    Hugh’s fiancee was Sybyl (which is how she spelt it) Thesiger.  She was the sister of the explorer and author Wilfred Thesiger and grandaughter of Lord Chelmsford (Anglo-Zulu War).  Boxley is the village near Maidstone where Hugh’s Whatman (maternal) grandparents lived.  In their visitor’s book it shows she stayed with them in 1915 on January 30 and then from March 5 March 15.  This overlapped with Hugh’s brother Maurice who stayed there from March 9 – March 19 1915. Hugh himself stayed there onMarch 25 before he set off to Euston the next day to catch the boat train to Liverpool.