Raleigh Trevelyan
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Walter Raleigh Trevelyan (6 July 1923 – 23 October 2014) was a British author, editor, and publisher and a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
. He resided at both
Shepherd Market Shepherd Market is a small precinct in Mayfair, in the West End of London. Its two business-lined squares are between Piccadilly and Curzon Street; it has a village-like atmosphere. It was built up between 1735 and 1746 by Edward Shepherd on t ...
in
Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...
, London, and in
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. His Spanish partner Raúl Balín died in 2004.


Childhood

Raleigh Trevelyan was born in the
Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...
.
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, to Colonel Walter Raleigh Fetherstonhaugh Trevelyan, commander of the British Indian Army garrison at the penal settlement of
Port Blair Port Blair (), officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headqu ...
, and Olive Beatrice Frost Trevelyan. The family moved to
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
, and then when he was six, the family trekked on horseback for three weeks to his father's new assignment in
Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...
, where Colonel Trevelyan was posted as military adviser to the Maharaja of
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...
. At the age of eight, like many children of the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
, Raleigh was packed off to a boarding prep school in England and rarely saw his parents after that.


Professional life and works

After leaving
Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...
in 1942, Trevelyan served in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in the
Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...
and was sent first to
Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
and then to
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. On 23 May 1944, during the breakout from
Anzio Anzio (, also ; ) is a town and ''comune'' on region of Italy, about south of Rome. Well known for its seaside resorts, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola, and Ve ...
, the
Green Howards The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), frequently known as the Yorkshire Regiment until the 1920s, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, in the King's Division. Raised in 1688, it served under variou ...
battalion to which he was attached lost 230 men, some of whose deaths he blamed on himself. Towards the end of 1944, back with the Rifle Brigade, Trevelyan got a job in the British military mission in Rome, where he remained for two years, falling in love with central Italy. His participation in the bloody
Battle of Anzio The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allies of World War II, Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, an ...
, in which he was wounded twice, was the subject of two memoirs. ''The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After'' (1957), was recognized for his painfully honest account of how a soldier responds to the terror of being under fire. Later, with the help of German and Italian friends, Trevelyan wrote ''Rome '44: The Battle for the Eternal City'' (1981), which provided a vivid account of what it had been like for soldiers and civilians on the other side of the conflict. After the war Trevelyan worked briefly in merchant banking, then became an editor at
William Collins, Sons William Collins, Sons & Co., often referred to as Collins, was a Scotland, Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterianism, Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins (publisher), William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in par ...
and later at
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...
and Michael Joseph, editing both fiction and nonfiction while writing his own books. Some of Trevelyan's early popular books were about Italy. ''Princes Under the Volcano: Two Hundred Years of a British Dynasty in Sicily'' (1973), an account of the British role on that island, particularly the
Whitaker family The Whitaker family is an English family notable for its involvement in the life of Sicily. Benjamin Ingham set up a wine business in Marsala and his relative Joseph Whitaker expanded and diversified the business. Their story is told in Raleigh ...
, who started out exporting
Marsala wine Marsala is a fortified wine, dry or sweet, produced in the region surrounding the Italian city of Marsala in Sicily. Marsala first received ''Denominazione di Origine Controllata'' (DOC) status in 1969. The European Union grants Protected d ...
and ended up entertaining European royalty. ''The Shadow of Vesuvius'' (1976) is about the discovery of the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century. A 1978 book, ''A Pre-Raphaelite Circle'', viewed the major painters of the early Victorian avant-garde movement of the title through the prism of correspondence he found in the papers of Pauline Trevelyan, a distant relation by marriage who was a confidante and patron of the art critic and artist
John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...
. ''The Golden Oriole'' (1987) combined a journal of Trevelyan's five journeys to the subcontinent with historical chronicle, genealogy, family photographs, memoirs and interviews, to trace his family's involvement across 200 years of British involvement in India. Notable were Sir William Macnaghten, the British Resident in Kabul whose beheading during the First Anglo-Afghan War prompted the
1842 retreat from Kabul The 1842 retreat from Kabul was the retreat of the British and East India Company forces from Kabul during the First Anglo-Afghan War. An uprising in Kabul forced the then-commander, Major-General William Elphinstone, to fall back to the Britis ...
and the Massacre of Elphinstone's Army and the ten Trevelyans who were among the hundreds of Britons massacred during the
Siege of Cawnpore The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were duped into a false assurance of a safe passage to Allahabad by the rebel forces under ...
in the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
. Others ancestors discussed in the chronicle include
Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was an English historian, poet, and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster General between 184 ...
who introduced English-medium education in India; Charles Trevelyan, reformer of the
British Civil Service In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government, which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen ...
and later
Governor of Madras This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized ...
and Indian Finance Minister; George Otto Trevelyan, the author of the classic, ''The Competition Wallah'' (1865);
Humphrey Trevelyan Humphrey Trevelyan, Baron Trevelyan, (27 November 1905 – 9 February 1985) was a British colonial administrator, diplomat and writer. Having begun his career in the Indian Civil Service and Indian Political Service, he transferred to HM Diplo ...
, a British diplomat who became one of
Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
's closest and most valued associates during the final preparations for Indian Independence; and, of course, his own parents. Trevelyan spent ten years retracing
Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebell ...
's footsteps for his best-known work, the acclaimed biography ''Sir Walter Raleigh'' (2002). The volume argued for the elevation of his distant ancestor and namesake to the upper reaches of the pantheon of British greats, based on Raleigh's achievements as an explorer, courtier, poet, American colonizer and early purveyor of tobacco to England and potatoes to Ireland. The book waded deep into the nuances of British, French and Spanish foreign policy to explain Raleigh's various acts of naval heroism and piracy; verified Raleigh's claims about silver and gold deposits in
The Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...
(thought at the time to be wild fabrications); and brought Elizabethan court intrigues into focus to trace the events that led to Raleigh's years in the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
and his beheading for treason in 1618.


Publications

*''The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After'', 1956 *''A Hermit Disclosed'', 1960, *''The Big Tomato'', 1966 *''Princes Under the Volcano: Two Hundred Years of a British Dynasty in Sicily'', 1972 *''The Shadow of Vesuvius'', 1976, *''A Pre-Raphaelite Circle'', 1978, *''Rome '44: The Battle for the Eternal City'', 1981, *''Shades of the Alhambra'', 1984 *''The Golden Oriole: Childhood, Family and Friends in India'', 1987, *''Grand Dukes and Diamonds: The Wernhers of Luton Hoo'', 1991, *''Wallington, Northumberland (National Trust Guidebooks)'', 1994, *''The Companion Guide to Sicily'', 1999, *''Sir Walter Raleigh'', 2002, *''Parliamentary and legal questions, 1832'', 2010, *''Elegy on the Death of the Princess Charlotte with Lines on the Death of J. Tweddell'', 2011,


References


External links


A. M. Heath Literary Agents author page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trevelyan, Raleigh 1923 births 2014 deaths People from South Andaman district People educated at Winchester College Rifle Brigade officers British Army personnel of World War II British literary editors British biographers British historians British writers Writers from Cornwall Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature British people in colonial India Military personnel of British India