Sir Trevor Chute K.C.B. [55987]

  General Notes:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chute/gp3930.htm#head1


Sir Trevor Chute and Lady Ellen Browning:

Sir Trevor Chute
"Entered the British Army 1882, achieved the rank of Major Colonel and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Colonies, late Col. 70th Foot, Aukland, New Zealand, Army and Navy Club, etc." (WEC)
"Trevor Chute is said to have been born at Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, on 31 July 1816, the son of Francis Chute and his wife, Mary Ann Bomford. He entered the army in 1832, served first in the Ceylon Rifles and then in the 70th (Surrey) Regiment, and was a major by 1847. Duty in Ireland in 1848 was followed by the 70th's transfer in 1849 to India, where Chute was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanded the regiment at Peshawar. Becoming a full colonel in 1854, he organised flying columns for pacification purposes during the Indian mutiny of 1857-58.
Chute arrived in New Zealand in May 1861 with his regiment, which helped to construct the military road from Drury to the Waikato River. He presided over a court of inquiry into the conduct of the 'battle' of Waireka. In March 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general commanding the troops stationed in Australia. In August 1865, now a major general, he returned to New Zealand to replace Duncan Cameron in charge of British forces while retaining his Australian command. Governor George Grey had proclaimed peace in Taranaki, while also confiscating a large tract of fertile land, on 2 September. However, soon after Chute's arrival several messengers sent to convey the terms to west coast Maori were killed, and on 4 October a supply convoy was attacked in the Hawera district. A further South Taranaki expedition was decided on; it was to be the last campaign in New Zealand by imperial troops.
Chute left Wanganui on 30 December with a 620-strong force which comprised about 270 Maori, a similar number from the 14th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot, and detachments of artillery and Forest Rangers. During a six week campaign, seven fortified pa and some twenty villages between the Waitotara River and Mt Taranaki were destroyed by Chute's column, while locally based imperial troops inflicted further damage. This result was not achieved by sophisticated generalship. Chute's preferred mode of attack was frontal assault; casualties were sometimes heavy, and the rudimentary tactics worked only because his Maori opponents lacked numbers at given points. Nor did Chute encounter any of the modern pa which had defeated much sharper military minds.
Chute was ruthless with life as well as property. Few prisoners were taken - the Pai Marire prophet Te Ua Haumene, who had already made peace, was a notable exception - and there was little attempt to distinguish between 'rebellious' and 'submissive' hapu. Wide discretion was given to officers in charge of outposts, some of whom operated without consulting local experts. This campaign and the later expedition of Major Thomas McDonnell allowed military settlers to be placed between the Waingongoro and Waitotara rivers, but the long-term outcome of the scorched-earth policy was to be Titokowaru's War of 1868.
Chute's operations were interrupted by the 'forest march' of January 1866, in which some 500 men took 9 days to tramp from modern day Hawera to New Plymouth along a disused bridle track east of Mt Taranaki. The journey usually took two or three days, but the use of pack-horses necessitated the bridging of many of the 'twenty-one rivers and ninety gullies' which had to be crossed. As food ran out and rain fell incessantly, things 'began to look certainly very horrible, for no one knew where we were.' To avert starvation, two horses were killed and eaten: 'The heart was reserved for the General'. When the force marched into New Plymouth (after a halt to smarten themselves up) they were fêted by the townspeople for their conquest of the interior. In truth, Chute had nearly lost his force without encountering the enemy.
Chute's military campaigns were followed by a dispute with Grey, who sought to retain imperial troops in New Zealand. British regulars were first limited to a passive role, then made responsible to Chute alone in December 1866, and progressively withdrawn. Although the last troops were not to leave until February 1870, from May 1867 only a battalion of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment remained. New Zealand ceased to be a separate command and Chute, created KCB in 1867, moved with his headquarters to Melbourne, Australia, where on 8 July 1868 he married Ellen Browning. They had no children. Having helped foster the volunteer movement in Australia, Chute oversaw the attenuation of British garrisons there, and followed the last imperial troops stationed in Victoria back to England in October 1870. He became colonel of the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment, was made a full general in 1877, and placed on the retired list in 1881. He died at Binfield, near Reading, on 12 March 1886.
Chute was 'a short-legged man, with a shaggy, square, masculine head and powerful body. He walked deliberately, carrying his head a little to either side, and no man could precisely foretell his temper from day to day'. His nickname, 'The Kerry Bull', derived from both his general appearance and a resonant voice, which was fully exploited on the parade ground. His direct, unscientific approach to soldiering endeared him to his troops, but in New Zealand left him 'lonely as a moulting crow in the midst of his predecessor's brilliant staff'.
Green, David. 'Chute, Trevor 1816 - 1886'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 18 March 2002 URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/
Lady Ellen Browning
"I am a family historian and have some connection to the Chute family. General Sir Trevor Chute, the son of Francis Chute and Mary Ann Bomford of Chute Hall, married my cousin Ellen Browning in Melbourne in 1868. Your website states that she may have been Ellen Browning "or Brownrigg", but I can assure you Ellen was most definitely a Browning. Her father, Samuel Thomas Browning, was a banker long established in the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. He was a chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, as well as New Zealand Insurance and the Loan and Mercantile Agency. Her mother was Ellen McNeill, born in Liverpool in about 1813, the daughter of the merchant, Robert McNeill and his wife Ellen Highfield. Sir Trevor and Lady Ellen Chute were childless, and there was an age difference of about 33 years (she was born in Sydney, Australia, in September 1849). After Sir Trevor died in 1886, Ellen remarried to another career soldier, George Tennant Carre (in 1890). I am convinced she left no descendants, and died herself between 1890 and 1912."
"Ellen Browning was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on September 24, 1849 at a house in Castlereagh Street (this is one of the city's main streets). She was baptised in the parish of St James, on February 6, 1860. Her parents were Samuel Thomas Browning (his profession is given as banker) and her mother was Ellen Browning. Samuel Browning (her father) was born in London on January 17, 1803, to Samuel and Jane Browning (formerly Davis). He was christened at St Mary's, in Lambeth, London, on September 4, 1803. Samuel died in Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand on June 11, 1888 of old age. He was 87. He was buried in Epsom on June 13. Ellen's mother, also named Ellen, was born in Liverpool in about 1813. She was the daughter of a merchant named Robert McNeill by his wife Ellen Highfield. Ellen Browning (the elder) died in Epsom, Auckland, NZ on October 12, 1899, again of old age.
Ellen Browning (the younger) married Sir Trevor Chute at St John's Church, Toorak, Melbourne, Australia on July 8, 1868. In 1890 she remarried, to George Tennant Carre (he was christened in Albury, Surrey, England on February 22, 1840 and died on May 22, 1912).
The Chutes were counted in the 1881 census. At this time, they were living in Terrace Road, Egmont, in Binfield, Berkshire. Sir Trevor is described as the head of the household and his occupation is given as General, Infantry Active List. He was 64, and his birthplace given as "Spa Thralee, Ireland". I assume they mean Tralee in County Kerry where of course there is a Chute Hall. Ellen is described as his wife, age 31, birthplace "New Sth Wales Sidney".
You might also be surprised to know that Sir Trevor administered the colony of New South Wales for a short time in 1867-8 after the departure of the last Governor before the arrival of the next.
I hope all this is of use. I wish I knew more about my cousin and her relationship with the man they called "the Kerry bull". Ellen's mother left a very detailed will and in it describes a portrait of Ellen in court dress, so at some time Lady Chute was presented to Queen Victoria. Hopefully one day I will find it."
Daniel Browning, 29 JUN 2002 and 10 JUL 2002
<STRONGIGI Record

Trevor CHUTE
Sex: M
Event(s):
Birth: 31 Jul 1816
Tralee, Kerry, Ireland
Parents:
Father: Francis CHUTE
Mother: Mary Ann BOMFORD
Source Information:
Film Number: 2034652
Page Number:
Reference Number:


Record Type: Chute Family History/Book
Title: A Genealogy and History of the Chute Family in America: With Some Account of the Family in Great Britain and Ireland, with an Account of Forty Allied Families Gathered from the Most Authentic Sources
Author: William Edward Chute
Published: Salem, Massachusetts, 1894
Comments: Copy originally owned by George Maynard Chute, nephew of William Edward Chute with his signature on the flyleaf; handwritten notes in margins; passed to George Maynard Chute, Jr. who published an updated addendum to this work in 1968; passed to George Maynard Chute, III; passed to Jacqueline Irene Chute.
Location: Privately held

Type: E-Mail
Author: Daniel Browning
Title: Sir Trevor Chute
Date: 29 JUN 2002
LOCA: Chute Family Records/GP3930-1

Trevor married Lady Ellen Browning [55988] [MRIN: 551614769], daughter of Samuel Thomas Browning [55989] and Ellen McNeill [55990], on 8 Jul 1868 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Lady Ellen Browning [55988] was born in Sep 1849 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.)