Robert Trewhella

Robert Trewhella (1830 – 6 February 1909)[1] was a railway engineer from Cornwall, England.

Origins

Robert Trewhella II was born in Cornwall, in the parish of Ludgvan (3 miles north-east of Penzance) and was christened there on 30 May 1830.[2] He was a son of Robert Trewheela I (1792/6-1846)[3] of Cockwells[4] in the parish of Ludgvan, a miner[5] and farmer, by his first wife Mary Repper (d.1831), whom he married in 1815 at Ludgvan.[6]

Little is recorded regarding the history of the Trewhella family.[7] The historic estate of "Trewhella"[8] (today "Trewhella Farm"[9]) is situated in the parish of St Hilary, 3 miles east of Ludgvan, in an area containing many former mines, most notably Wheal Fortune. A certain James Trewhella, in 1633 a churchwarden of Towednack, the parish on the east side of Ludgvan, is represented as one of two profile busts sculpted on surviving wooden bench ends in that church. It has been proposed that his son was Matthew Trewhella,[10] a choirboy with a beautiful voice who in the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor,[11] (recorded in 1873 by William Bottrell (1816-1881) in his Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall)[10] was abducted from the parish of Zennor (adjacent to both Ludgvan and Towednack) into the sea by a mermaid, which legendary creature is sculpted on the surviving Mermaid Chair in St Senara's Church, Zennor, constructed from two 15th century bench ends.[11]

Career

He studied civil engineering and worked with the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Between 1850 and 1860, Trewhella was invited by the Italian government to participate in the construction of the infrastructure of the country. He moved to Italy, designing and building railways, roads and bridges, including the seventy-mile line between Florence and Bologna through the rugged Apennine Mountains. He built various railways in Sicily, including the Circumetnea line around Mount Etna, and the Palermo–Corleone line. He acquired land and sulphur mines, and built the first great hotel in Palermo, the Excelsior, where, in 1903 he received King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as his guests. He is associated in some manner with the Palazzo Trewhella,[12][13] 91-103 Via Garibaldi, on the south side of that street, west of the junction with Via Santa Chiara, Catania, a large 18th century apartment block surrounding a central courtyard.

Builds Villa Sant'Andrea

He built the Villa Sant'Andrea on the beach in the Bay of Mazzarò below Taormina, Sicily, as his summer house.[14] In 1919 the villa was completed by his son Percy Trewhella,[15] whose daughter Gwendoline Trewhella (born in nearby Catania) and her husband Major Ivor Manley transformed it in 1950[16] into the present well-known hotel.[17] Ivor Manley was attached as an intelligence corps officer to the US 5th Army[18] during the 1943 Allied invasion which recaptured Sicily and Italy from German occupation, and he personally recovered possession of Villa Sant'Andrea which had been used as an officer's mess[19] for the staff of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring whose HQ was at the Hotel San Domenico in Taormina.

Marriage & issue

On 2 January 1862 at Leghorn in Italy, he married Kate Lucy Thrupp,[20] an Englishwoman whom he met in Sicily. His brother John Trewhella (1816-1878) "of Penzance",[21] Cornwall, also a railway engineer, married her sister Anna Maria Thrupp[22] and died at Sorrento, Italy.[21] By his wife he had issue including:

  • Charles Robert Trewhella (1865-1893), born in Florence[23] 14 March 1865, educated at Clifton College in Gloucestershire,[24] a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, who died at Rome on 8 March 1893, aged 28,[25] where he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery. His obituary published by the Institution of Civil Engineers states as follows:[26]

In 1882 he became a student at the Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill, where he took 1st-class honours and obtained the diploma of Associate. On leaving the College in 1885, he was engaged under his father on railway and mining works in Sicily and Italy. In March, 1886, he was employed on a project for a railway round Mount Etna about 65 miles in length and in the following June was sent to Palermo to superintend the completion of the Palermo-Corleone Railway, about 40 miles in length. In January, 1887, he returned to Catania and took charge of the construction of a short line from Raddusa to the Sant' Agostino Sulphur Mines and was subsequently engaged in superintending the plant for the Stretto Sulphur Mine. In 1890 and 1891 he was occupied on the construction of the Ferrovia-circum-Etna - the railway round Mount Etna - and also in designing the plant for the Grotta Calda Sulphur Mines in Sicily, of which he was a joint lessee. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 3rd of January, 1891.

  • (Alfred)[27] Percy Trewhella (24 April 1875 - 5 April 1959), born 24 April 1875 in Castellamare di Stabia, Naples, Italy, married Gertrude Deidamia Sarauw (11 July 1880 - 5 April 1959), born in Messina, Sicily, the daughter of Carl Christian 'Carlo' Sarauw.[28] The journal of Mrs Gertrude Trewhella's internment in occupied France during WW II was published in 2014, edited by her grandson's wife Jane Manley.[29] The couple died together in tragic circumstances at Taormina when Gertrude "stepped out of the way of a car in the villa grounds and fell, as she did so, her husband Alfred tried to catch hold of her and, tragically, the two of them fell to their deaths".[30] By his wife he had a son and two daughters:
    • Gerald Trewhella (1908-28 December 1908), born in Catania, died in infancy during the 1908 Messina earthquake,[30] the most destructive earthquake ever experienced in Europe which killed 100,000 people.
    • Gwendoline Deidamia Trewhella (1910-1998), born in Catania, who in 1936 at Taormina married Major (William Arthur Reginald) Ivor Manley[30] (1912-1973) of Bacton Grange, Abbey Dore, in Herefordshire,[31] of the Welsh Guards and later of the British Intelligence Corps, in 1946 British Vice-Consul at Naples;[32] Her son Richard ("Dickie") Ivor Trewhella Manley (born 1939) inherited the hotel in 1965, which he managed together with his wife (Priscilla) Jane Allin (a great-grand-daughter of Colonel Robert Bridges Bellers, JP, DL, of Bacton Grange[31][33]) until 1985 when the family, with 4 children, returned permanently to England.[34]
    • (Vittoria) Vivien Trewhella (1914-1991), born in Catania on 9 March 1914, wife of Sir John Norris Nicholson, 2nd Baronet[35] of Brooke House, Parkgate, Cheshire[36] and of Mottistone Manor, Isle of Wight, Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight 1980-6,[37] Chairman of the Ocean Steam Ship Company 1957-71, Chairman of Martins Bank 1962-4[36] and a director of Barclays Bank 1969-81.[37]
  • Beatrice Elford, daughter, mentioned in her father's will, dated 11 July 1908 at Palermo[20]
  • Adele Carnazzo, daughter, mentioned in her father's will.

Death & burial

He died at 19 Viale Margherita,[38] his mansion in Catania, Sicily, on 6 February 1909 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.[1][21]

References
  1. Died 6 February 1909 at Catania, Sicily, aged 79, per Times Newspaper 10 February 1909.
  2. Parish records quoted by Jurek
  3. Cornwall OPC Database: "Robert I was born on 30 Oct 1792, and baptised on 2 Dec 1792 in the parish of Ludgvan, Cornwall, England. His parents were listed as John and Alice", quoted by Henrik Sarauw
  4. Cornwall OPC Database, Burials, 1846, Robert TREWHELLA, Day Month: 02-Dec, Year: 1846, Parish Or Reg District: Ludgvan, Forename: Robert, Surname: TREWHELLA, Age: 54, Residence Cockwells
  5. Cornwall OPC Database, Baptisms, 1830, Robert TREWHELLA, Day Month: 30-May, Year: 1830, Parish Or Reg District: Ludgvan, Forename: Robert, Surname: TREWHELLA, Sex: son, Father Forename: Robert, Mother Forename: Mary, Residence: Ludgvan, Father Rank Profession: Miner, Notes: born 13 May
  6. However a certain "Catherine Trewhella" (born 1796), listed as resident with him in Census of Cornwall 1841 Parish Ludgvan Place Tregenda, quoted by Jurek
  7. "Trewhella" family not listed in Heraldic Visitation of Cornwall, 1887
  8. An historic estate named "Trewolla" also exists about 40 miles to the north-east of Ludgvan, in the parish of St Goran, 6 miles (10 km) south-west of St Austell
  9. A Grade II listed building
  10. Eleanor Frampton: "Mathew Trewhella is the modern form of the name; in Bottrell's original tale of the Mermaid of Zennor it is written as 'Mathey Trewella'."
  11. https://cornishbirdblog.com/2019/06/19/the-mermaid-chair-zennor/
  12. Per Henrik Sarauw
  13. Palazzo Trewhella, an 18th century residence on Via Garibaldi, per BlogCatania
  14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Message Boards". Boards.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  16. https://www.belmondpress.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Belmond-Villa-SantAndrea-History-Booklet.pdf
  17. A Century in Sicily, website of Belmond Hotels
  18. https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_M01.html
  19. https://www.belmond.com/ideas/articles/a-century-in-sicily
  20. Family Tales and Misconceptions
  21. Gravestone in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome
  22. Harry Manley
  23. born in Florence, per 1881 census
  24. per 1881 census, Census Place: Clifton, Gloucester, England
  25. Times Newspaper, 14 March 1893
  26. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_Robert_Trewhella
  27. Known as "Percy" (Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.597, Nicholson Baronets)
  28. https://gazlayfamilyhistory.org//desc_list.php?person=6155&recordstart=0&pagesize=50&gennum=10
  29. https://www.gatehouseeditions.co.uk/
  30. Gazlay Family History
  31. The History of Ewyas Lacy
  32. https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_M01.html
  33. http://www.clement-jones.com/ps04/ps04_030.html
  34. https://www.belmondpress.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Belmond-Villa-SantAndrea-History-Booklet.pdf
  35. http://www.thepeerage.com/p54182.htm
  36. Debrett's Peerage 1968
  37. Mural monument at Mottistone Church
  38. National Probate Calendar, quoted in Family Tales and Misconceptions

Further reading
  • Kalla-Bishop, P.M., Mediterranean Island Railways (part of series Railway Histories of the World), Newton Abbot, 1970
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