Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Trevor Alexander Stuart Dallas

17/07/1895 –14/07/1910

Sent from India to be educated as boarder at Berkhamsted School. Died at the age of 14 years

• Christopher Dolton

TREVOR ALEXANDER STUART DALLAS; 1895 -1910

Trevor was born in Mussorie, India on 17^th July 1895 and was baptised at Christ Church, Mussorie on 20^th September that year. His parents were Alexander Edgerton Dallas and Fredericka Katherine Dallas, nee Leeds

His father, Alexander Edgerton Dallas was an officer serving in the Indian Army. Alexander had himself been born in 1869 at Lahore, Punjab, in what is today Pakistan.. He was first commissioned as an officer on the 21^st  September 1887 and the record of Trevor’s baptism in 1895 tells us that at that date Alexander held the rank of Lieutenant. He served in the Supply and Transport Corps and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1915 before retiring with that rank in 1921. He was awarded the Order of St Michael and St George (C.M.G.), an order awarded to British subjects who have rendered extraordinary and important services abroad. He was also honoured as an Officer of the British Empire (O.B.E.).

His mother, Fredericka, also came from a military family. Her father William had served as an officer in the army, but the 1861 census reveals that he had by then retired from the army and was a Queen’s Messenger. The Corps of Queen’s Messengers were, and indeed still today are, couriers employed by the Foreign Office to carry secret and important documents to British Embassies around the world, many of them, like William, retired army officers. Indeed, William had married Fredericka’s mother, Emma Hildyard, at the British Embassy Church in Paris in 1853. Fredericka was herself born in 1866 in Richmond, Surrey.

It is not apparent how Trevor’s parents first met, but they married in Bengal on 20^th September 1894 and Trevor was born in July the following year. A daughter, Gwendoline, followed in 1899. She too was born in India.

Trevor’s parents settled in England, in Bexhill, Sussex, after Alexander retired from the Indian Army in 1921. How was it then, that Trevor died in Berkhamsted on 14^th July 1910 and came to be buried in the town’s cemetery? The answer lies in the fact that the cemetery records give Trevor’s address at time of his death as St John’s, Chesham Road. St John’s was (and still is) one of Berkhamsted School’s boarding houses. Clearly, Trevor had been sent from India to Berkhamsted School as a boarder to be educated.

The Times of India carried the following notice of Trevor’s death on 1^st August 1910:

“July 14^th in England, Trevor Alexander Stuart, the only son of Major Alexander E Dallas Supply and Transport Corps and Mrs Dallas, aged 15 years.”  (In fact, Trevor was three days short of his 15^th birthday.)

We know from Trevor’s death certificate that for six days prior to his death he had been suffering from gastric influenza, that is inflammation of the stomach and intestines. Causes range from bacteria, viruses, and parasites to food reactions and unclean water. Severe cases can lead to life-threatening illnesses like pneumonia, which occurred in Trevor’s case. He also suffered from urticaria, a body rash caused by his illness.

In 1939, Trevor’s parents were still living in Bexhill. Alexander was 70 and Fredericka 73. Also living with them was their daughter Gwendolin and her husband, Hugh Dallas. (Although Gwendolin and Hugh shared the same surname, and had married in India, there is no immediately apparent close family connection.) Fredericka died later in 1939. Alexander died in 1949 at the age of 80 and Gwendoline died in 2000 at the grand old age of 101.