Colonel The Hon. William Le Poer Trench CVO, JP (17 June 1837 – 16 September 1920) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

politician and

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer. He was the third son of

William Trench, 3rd Earl of Clancarty William Thomas Le Poer Trench, 3rd Earl of Clancarty, 2nd Marquess of Heusden (21 September 1803 – 26 April 1872), styled Viscount Dunlo between 1805 and 1837, was an Irish peer, as well a nobleman in the Dutch nobility. He was educated at ...

and Lady Sarah Juliana Butler. He married Harriet Maria Georgina Martins, daughter of Sir William Martins, on 21 April 1864. He fought in the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

between 1857 and 1858, commanding a ladder company at the capture of

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

and Nankow, and was

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. He gained the rank of Colonel in the service of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. Between 1872 and 1874, he was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, having unseated the elected MP,

John Philip Nolan Lieutenant-Colonel John Philip Nolan (1838 – 30 January 1912) was an Irish nationalist landowner and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary P ...

, on petition; the case was one of the most controversial Irish cases of its time and permanently damaged the reputation of the judge,

William Keogh William Nicholas Keogh PC (1817– 30 September 1878) was an unpopular and controversial Irish politician and judge, whose name became a byword in Ireland for betraying one's political principles. Background He was born in Galway, son of Wil ...

. He held the office of

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, and

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. He was made a Commander of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

in 1912. He was scandalised by the marriage on 10 July 1889 of his 20-year-old son and heir, William LePoer-Trench, to a London showgirl, Isabel Maud Penrice Bilton, who used the stage name of Belle. As a result, he did all in his power to dissolve the marriage. When this was unsuccessful he stopped his son's allowance, and resorted to selling lands in order to diminish his heir's eventual income, but his daughter-in-law's income from the stage was too great for these expedients to have much impact.Se

IrelandXO

References

The Peerage

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Poer Trench, William 1837 births 1920 deaths British Army personnel of the Second Opium War Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922) Politicians from County Galway Royal Engineers officers UK MPs 1868–1874 Younger sons of earls

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...