Robert Trewhella

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Robert Trewhella
Born
Ludgvan, Cornwall, England
Baptised30 May 1830
Died(1909-02-06)6 February 1909
Catania, Sicily, Italy
Occupation Civil engineer
Spouse(s)
Kate Lucy Thrupp
​
(m. 1862)​
Children4

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

Contents

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. [2]

Little is recorded regarding the history of the Trewhella family. [6] The historic estate of "Trewhella" [7] (today "Trewhella Farm" [8] ) 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, [9] a choirboy with a beautiful voice who in the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor , [10] (recorded in 1873 by William Bottrell (1816-1881) in his Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall) [9] 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. [10]

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 narrow-gauge 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, [11] [12] 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. [13] In 1919 the villa was completed by his son Percy Trewhella, whose daughter Gwendoline Trewhella (born in nearby Catania) and her husband Major Ivor Manley transformed it in 1950 [14] into the present well-known hotel. [15] Ivor Manley was attached as an intelligence corps officer to the US 5th Army [16] 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 [15] for the staff of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring whose HQ was at the Hotel San Domenico in Taormina.

Marriage and issue

On 2 January 1862 at Leghorn in Italy, he married Kate Lucy Thrupp, an Englishwoman whom he met in Sicily. His brother John Trewhella (1816-1878) "of Penzance", [17] Cornwall, also a railway engineer, married her sister Anna Maria Thrupp and died at Sorrento, Italy. [17] By his wife he had issue including:

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.

Death and burial

He died at 19 Viale Margherita, his mansion in Catania, Sicily, on 6 February 1909 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. [1] [17]

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References

  1. 1 2 Died 6 February 1909 at Catania, Sicily, aged 79, per Times Newspaper, 10 February 1909.
  2. 1 2 "Ancestry". Ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2022.(subscription required)
  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"
  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. ↑ "The Visitations of Cornwall, 1530, 1573, & 1620 - viewing page i". Ukga.org. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  7. ↑ 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
  8. ↑ "TREWHELLA FARMHOUSE, St. Hilary - 1143721 | Historic England". Historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  9. 1 2 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'."
  10. 1 2 "The Mermaid Chair, Zennor". Cornishbirdblog.com. 19 June 2019.
  11. ↑ Per Henrik Sarauw
  12. ↑ Palazzo Trewhella, an 18th century residence on Via Garibaldi, per BlogCatania
  13. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. 1 2 "A Century in Sicily | Celebrating History in Taormina". Belmond.com. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  16. 1 2 "British Army Officers 1939-1945 : M". Unithistories.com. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  17. 1 2 3 "Gravestone in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome". Cemeteryome.it. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  18. ↑ born in Florence, per 1881 census
  19. ↑ per 1881 census, Census Place: Clifton, Gloucester, England
  20. ↑ Times Newspaper, 14 March 1893
  21. ↑ "Charles Robert Trewhella". Gracesguide.co.uk.
  22. ↑ 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)
  23. ↑ "Gazlay Family History | Descendants of Vivien Trewhella". Gazlayfamilyhistory.org. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  24. ↑ "Gatehouse Editions". Gatehouseeditions.co.uk.
  25. 1 2 3 "Gazlay Family History | Descendants of Alfred Percy Trewhella". Gazlayfamilyhistory.org. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  26. 1 2 "The Hamp family and litigation concerning the Bacton Estate, Bacton, 1800s, Ewyas Lacy Study Group". Ewyaslacy.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  27. ↑ "Sophia Minerva "Minnie" BELLERS". Clement-jones.com.
  28. 1 2 Debrett's Peerage 1968
  29. 1 2 "Geograph:: Inside St Peter & St Paul, Mottistone... © Basher Eyre cc-by-sa/2.0". Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2022.

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