Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/488

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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Victoria, he was clerk of petty sessions at Kilmore, and afterwards at Ballarat. In 1855 he was admitted to the Victorian Bar, and quickly obtained a large practice, especially in mining cases. Though he never entered parliament he was Attorney-General in the first Berry Government from August to Oct. 1875, and in Mr. (now Sir) Graham Berry's second Administration, from May 1877 to March 1878, when he was appointed a Commissioner of Land Tax, and a County Court Judge in April 1880. Mr. Trench, who was appointed Q.C. in 1878, subsequently retired on a pension.

Trenwith, William Arthur, M.L.A., was born at Launceston, Tasmania, in 1847, being the second of three sons of a Cornish bootmaker, whose trade he began to learn in his ninth year. At thirteen young Trenwith maintained both himself and his younger brother at his trade. In 1864, when only seventeen, he became one of the Provisional Committee of the Working Men's Club in Launceston; and married before he was twenty-one. In 1868 Mr. Trenwith left Tasmania, and settled in Melbourne. Through his superior vigour and undoubted political ability he was chosen lecturer and organising agent for the National Reform League, and in 1879 stood for Villiers and Heytesbury as the Radical candidate, but was defeated. In the same year he formed what has proved a stable Union of his own trade, all previous attempts to band together the working bootmakers having failed. In 1886 he went to Adelaide to investigate the great strike in his trade in that city; and drew up a scale of prices which proved satisfactory to manufacturers and workmen alike. He also established a Board of Conciliation, composed of equal numbers of employers and employés, which Board is still an Adelaide institution. Mr. Trenwith was presented by his South Australian admirers with a purse of sovereigns, and on his return to Melbourne was generally accepted as the leading Labour representative in Victoria. In 1887 he was elected President of the Trades Hall Council, and was appointed one of the Victorian Commissioners for the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition in 1887, and Executive Commissioner for the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition of 1888. In 1886 Mr. Trenwith came forward for the important metropolitan constituency of Richmond, but was again defeated. However, at the general election in March 1889 he was returned by a substantial majority, and was re-elected in April 1892. In Parliament Mr. Trenwith brought forward a motion fur opening the Public Library and National Art Galleries on Sundays, especially in the interests of artisans and working men—but it was "blocked" Mr. Trenwith took a prominent part on the labour side in the disastrous strike in the shipping trade in 1890.

Trevor, Lieut.-General Wm. Cosmo, C.B., was born in Feb. 1826, and entered the army in March 1842, becoming captain in 1850, major in 1856, lieut.-colonel in 1863, colonel in 1868, major-general in 1878, and retiring with the honorary rank of lieut.-general in 1884. General Trevor distinguished himself in the Crimean War, and was rewarded with mention in despatches, a medal with clasp, the Turkish and Sardinian medals and brevet rank as major. He also did good service in the New Zealand war from 1864 to 1866, for which he was mentioned in despatches, received a medal, and was created C.B. From Dec. 1868 to Jan. 1869, when in command of the 14th Regiment, he administered the government of Tasmania during the interregnum between the departure of Sir Thomas Gore Browne and the arrival of Sir Charles Ducane. He served in the East Indies in command of 54th Regiment, 1873-7, and was appointed Brigadier-General (1877-9), during a portion of which time he was in temporary command of the Meerut Division.

Trickett, Hon. William Joseph, M.L.C., son of Joseph Trickett, was born on Sept. 2nd, 1845, at Gibraltar, where his father, a civil engineer, was employed on the Government works. In 1854 he accompanied the latter, who was appointed manager of the coining department of the Sydney branch of the Royal Mint, to New South Wales, where he was admitted as a solicitor in 1866. Mr. Trickett, who has been several times Mayor of the Borough of Woolaton, represented Paddington in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1878 to Dec. 1887, when he resigned and was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. He was Postmaster-General in

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