#52Ancestors – No. 40 – Harry Trevelyan Saves Winston Churchill in 1899

This post is number 40 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.  To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.

Harry Trevelyan Saves Churchill

Harry Trevelyan Saves Churchill

Who is Harry Arthur John Trevelyan and did he really save Churchill’s life during the Boer War?  According to an article in The Dearborn Guide on January 27, 1965, written shortly after Churchill’s death, the answer is “Yes.”  Is it true, I don’t know for sure.

I have tried searching various Churchill accounts regarding his escape from the Boers to learn more and was not able to pin down the details.  The article states that Trevelyan was one of a group of British soldiers who saved the 26 year old newspaper correspondent.  Churchill later became Prime Minister of England.  The article states Trevelyan was a Lieutenant in the Cavalry.

Trevelyan was a Canadian who join the fight against the Boers.  I do not know if he joined the British military for fought under an Canadian group.

Who was Harry A. Trevelyan?

Harry’s naturalization papers state he was born in Winnipeg, Canada, on July 14, 1876.  On May 15, 1901, he entered United States at Pembina, North Dakota, on the Great Northern Railroad. He states he settled in Michigan on November 1, 1908.  A search has not yielded any clues of where Harry was from 1901 to November 1908.

On December 24, 1909, in Detroit, Harry marries Edith H. White, my great Aunt.  The marriage record lists his parents as Samuel Trevelyan and Anne Barcroft.  A search of Manitoba archives and other online databases sheds no light on this family. The couple, Harry and Edith, have no children of their own. My grandmother, Mildred Edith Anderson, as a young child, comes to live with them sometime after 1925.  They considered her their daughter.

A man of many talents

Clerk Invents Calendar

Clerk Invents Calendar

Photo of Harry Trevelyan and Edith H. White

Photo of Harry Trevelyan and Edith H. White

Trevelyan was an automotive engineer for Cadillac, Packard, and Studebaker.  He was a member of the Composite Lodge No. 499 (Masons), his hobby was statistics, he wrote, collected British Royalty stamps, and he invented a perpetual calendar. My father has told me stories, that Uncle Harry had many travels, was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and once was a Detroit Sheriff’s Deputy.

The RCMP officially started in 1920, after Harry’s immigration to the US.  However, it’s predecessor the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) served the Canadian West.  Harry could have been a constable in this unit.  Members of the NWMP unit did join the fight against the Boers in 1898.  In 1938, Harry is employed by the Federal Clerk’s office in Detroit.  In his role as a clerk, he was mostly like deputized during the 1943 Detroit Race Riots.  I don’t believe he was actually employed as a police office

Harry died on April 1, 1955.  Somehow, I think he is playing the ultimate fools game on me.  As I can find very little records regarding his birth and family origins. His death certificate and obituary imply that he his interred at Woodmere Cemetery, in Detroit.  His ashes were actually interred elsewhere.

Sources:
He Saved Churchill’s Life in 1899, Dearborn, MI, The Dearborn Guide, January 27, 1965, page 6, col. 1. Microfilm located at Henry Ford Centennial Library, Dearborn, MI. Reel 29,  December 10, 1964 to June 24, 1965.

Harry A. Trevelyan obituary, Dearborn, MI, The Dearborn Press, April 7, 1955.

Duane De Loach, “Clerk Designs Calendar Good for 500 Years.” Detroit Free Press, Detroit, MI, November, 27, 1942

Photograph of Harry and Edith Trevelyan, circa 1950, Dearborn, MI. Copy in possession of Caroll Budny, Lynnwood, WA.  Texas.

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