British Scholar: Trevelyan - A Very British Family

A Very British Family: The Trevelyans and Their World
Laura Trevelyan, (London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2006), 256 pages

Reviewed by: Robert Whitaker, University of Texas at Austin

Representing more “than just a self-indulgent memoir of dim and distant relatives,” Laura Trevelyan’s A
Very British Family gives an intimate account of her family’s period of social and political preeminence in
Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Utilizing a mixture of correspondences, diary entries
and various secondary works, the author creates a brief biographic portrait of each of the Trevelyan clan’s
most famous members: the reformer Charles Edward, the radical scholar George Otto, the playboy
politician Charles Philips, the master historian George Macaulay, and the Goethe obsessed firefighter
Charles Humphry. In addition to providing a chronology of each man’s life, these biographies place their
subjects within a wider historical context, determining how they helped to either “shape” or “chronicle”
British history. The book also depicts the family life of each man, describing their relationships with one
another as well as with their spouses and children. Trevelyan’s description of the rise and ultimate decline
of her family through the generations makes A Very British Family a delightful read that manages to avoid
outright ancestor worship.

Motivated to write the book in order to overcome her ignorance of her family’s history, Laura Trevelyan
attempts to remain objective when considering the lives of her predecessors. Fortunately for the author,
the chronically self-absorbed and self-important nature of her forefathers makes her job rather easy. One
cannot help but feel annoyed with the self-righteous outbursts of Charles Edward during his time with the
East India Company or despise him for his belief in the “usefulness” of the Irish Famine. Similarly, one
grows weary with the political careers of George Otto and Charles Philips, who abandoned their initiatives
whenever they encountered opposition and never attained a status commiserate with their advantages.
The author saves her most scathing remarks for her grandfather Charles Humphry, who avoided work until
his late twenties and spent most of his marriage trying to seduce younger women. For G.M. Trevelyan,
however, the author adopts the perspective of David Cannadine, championing her great grandfather’s
works while only briefly mentioning his less than charming personality.

For all these faults, the Trevelyans remain a praiseworthy family. Members of the “aristocracy of
exceptional talent,” the Trevelyans brought a middle class mentality with them to the ranks of the
established class. Embodying hard work, integrity, and duty, the Trevelyans consistently made use of their
position within the social hierarchy to bring about reform. Despite his controversial opinions regarding India
and Ireland, few worked harder than Charles Edward to improve the lot of both regions. While George Otto
may be criticized for his lack of direct impact as a politician, his ideas as a radical satirist and scholar
indirectly influenced several key figures, including Theodore Roosevelt. George’s son Charles Philips,
though easily the most self-absorbed out of all the Trevelyans depicted in the book, cared deeply for the
well-being of industrial workers. His brother, G.M. Trevelyan, received harsh criticism from traditional
academics for writing unscholarly works, yet did more than anyone else in the early twentieth century to
raise the general public’s interest in history. Finally, Charles Humphry, the lazy and relatively obscure
Trevelyan, bravely worked as a volunteer firefighter during the Blitz and played a key role in the translation
of German Enigma communications as part of Project Ultra.

Though Laura Trevelyan succeeds in relating the dual nature of the Trevelyan line (reform-minded prigs)
during their time in the nation’s spotlight, some of the author’s promised “insights” fail to materialize by
book’s end. For instance, Trevelyan never provides a satisfactory amount of information regarding the
wives and children of the men discussed in the book. The author’s grandmother, Molly Bennett (wife of
Charles Humphry) remains the only person other than the five principals that receives a significant amount
of discussion. Indeed, the family’s estate at Wallington demands more attention from the author than
several of the men and women listed on the family tree at the beginning of the book. In addition, Trevelyan
continually relies on the insights and analysis of other writers in order to fill out her work. For every long
quote from a diary or correspondence, there seems to be an equally long quote from a secondary source.
While this is, to a certain extent, to be expected, one wishes that someone so close to the source material
could feel free to present their own opinions rather than relying on those of others. Despite these faults, A
Very British Family remains a useful work for anyone with an interest in the Trevelyans or the dynamics of
upper class intellectual life in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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