David Trench

Sir David Clive Crosbie Trench, GCMG, MC, DL 2 June 1915 – 4 December 1988 was a British soldier and colonial governor.

Early life
Trench was educated at Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent and graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge with the degree of Master of Arts (M.A.).

War service
In 1938, Trench entered the Colonial Service as a cadet in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate and was seconded to the Western Pacific High Commission in 1941. He was also commissioned into the Royal Artillery (Supplementary Reserve). From 1939 to 1945, he fought in the Second World War and served in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Defence Force from 1942 to 1946. For this, Trench was awarded the decoration of the Military Cross and the US Legion of Merit in 1944. He attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1947 and studied at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1949.

Colonial administration career
In 1950, Trench became Assistant Secretary to the Deputy Defence Secretary for Hong Kong. He eventually held the office of Deputy Financial Secretary in 1956 and Commissioner of Labour and Mines in 1957. In 1958, Trench studied at the Imperial Defence College in London.

Trench served as Deputy Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong between 1959 and 1960. He left Hong Kong to take up the office of High Commissioner for the British Western Pacific Territories between 1961 and 1964, only to be appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hong Kong between 1964 and 1971.

Personal life
Trench married Margaret Gould on 18 August 1944. The couple had one daughter, Katherine Elizabeth. Trench was also a distant kinsman of the Barons Ashtown, and one of his distant relatives, Sir Nigel Clive Cosby Trench, also worked in the Foreign Service and succeeded to the Barony of Ashtown in 1990.

Sir David Trench died on 4 December 1988, aged 73.

Offices and honours

 * C.M.G., 1960
 * K.C.M.G., 1962
 * K.St.J., 1964
 * Honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Hong Kong, 1968
 * G.C.M.G., 1969
 * Governor of Hong Kong, 1964 to 1971
 * President of St. John Ambulance Brigade and Association in Dorset since 1972.
 * Chairman, Dorset Area Health Authority from 1973 to 1982
 * Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset, 1977
 * The Trench Methadone Clinic and the David Trench Rehabilitation Clinic, both in Hong Kong, are named after him
 * Ching Cheung Road in Kwai Chung, New Territories,Hong Kong was named after him