The re-imagined story …

Mr Trineman had a fruiterer’s shop on Eastcott Hill next to the Duke of Wellington. He sold some lovely fruit and veg in there; you never got a bruised apple or a rotten potato. I suppose him being a former gardener made a difference. He used to work for Mr Morse up at the Croft.

I can remember little Kenny helping his father in the shop when he was barely tall enough to see over the counter. He liked to take the money and give the change. He was a bright little lad; his father’s pride and joy. It’s a blessing poor Mr Trineman didn’t live to see his son go to war.

Blessings were thin on the ground for the Trineman family. A baby son died before his first birthday and then three little daughters lost in the 1921 epidemic and now Kenny gone as well.

His headstone stands next to the children’s grave, although he doesn’t lie there, he was buried at sea, or that’s what the official record says. His ship was hit by enemy fire so his end probably wasn’t as dignified as ‘buried at sea.’

“In treasured memory of Kenneth John Trineman Sub Lieut RNVR – who paid the supreme sacrifice” the headstone reads. “Greater love hath no man than to give his life for his friends.”

But what about the parents …

The facts …

Frederick William Trineman married Emily Lilian Avenell in 1910. She was his second wife. He first married Mary Helena Kent in 1895. At the time of the 1901 census Frederick, Mary and their three children Beatrice, William and (Florence) Maud were living on Wroughton Road, close to where Frederick worked as a gardener for the Morse family at The Croft. Another son, Charles Frederick was born in 1903.

Four-year-old son William died in 1901 and Mary his mother died in 1909. Beatrice returned to her father’s family in Devon where she died in 1910 aged 14. Charles Frederick died in 1922 aged 19 so the only child to survive from Frederick’s first family was his daughter Florence Maud.

Mary Helena and Charles Frederick are buried in plot B3068. Little William does not appear to have been buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

The children who died in 1921, the daughters of Frederick’s second marriage to Emily Lilian Avenell, are buried in plot E7503. Doris Alice was 18 months old when she died in July 1921. Hilda Mary was 6½ years old when she died in August 1921 and Emily Mary Kathleen was 8 years old when she died in October, 1921. The couple’s first child, Herbert William George who died aged four months old in September 1911, is mentioned on the headstone but is not buried in the grave. He is buried in an infant’s grave, plot A395, with three other children.

Frederick William Trineman died at his home, 26 Eastcott Hill, on October 11, 1936 and was buried with his first wife Mary and their son Charles.

By the outbreak of war in 1939 only three of Frederick’s ten children had survived – Florence Maud from his first marriage and Kenneth John and Joyce E. from his second.

Emily Lilian Trineman died on April 22, 1944 at her home 25 Kent Road. She is buried in plot E7503 with her three daughters and Iris Emily Mary Roberts who died in July 1933 aged 7 years old. Iris was the daughter of Florence Maud and her husband Clifford Roberts.

Kenneth John Trineman RNVR was serving as Acting Sub Lieutenant on HMS Malvernian when the ship was bombed and heavily damaged on July 1, 1941 in the Bay of Biscay on a voyage from Hull to Gibraltar. The ship was abandoned and later spotted drifting. It was finally sunk on July 19. Twenty-four naval personnel lost their lives. Kenneth date of death is given as July 2, 1941. He was 25 years old.