WWI Renamed grouping of “Conman” Captain Trenfield, Army Service Corps. Civilian solicitor, struck off and sentenced to jail with hard labour. Chipping Sodbury, Bristol.

1915 Star with WWI pair and KGV Territorial Efficiency Medal

All medals named to RB Trenfield.

Reginald Blair Trenfield was born in 1892 to John and Margeurite. His father, John was an established solicitor.

In 1911 we find the family with a servant living at East View, High Street, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol. Reginald is seen to be working as a solicitors article clerk.

Reginald married Elizabeth Doreen O’Connor in 1921.

We see him entered into the London Gazette as a 2nd Lieutenant in June 1915.

His medal index card and rolls both indicate that he was stripped of the rank of Captain due to being convicted by a Civil Power.

In 1921, we see Reginald working as a solicitor and living with his family and a servant at High Street, Chipping Sodbury.

The offence:

Between the dates of the 22nd of February 1922 and the 4th of July 1922, Reginald misappropriated funds from the estate of John Brooke as well as sold two cottages, all for his own personal gain.

Estate Defrauded (extracted from research found online)
​In 1922 there was a theft by a solicitor acting for the estate of my great grandmother. The family originally believed that it was committed by JW Trenfield but it turned out that the perpetrator was his son, Reginald Blair Trenfield, the son misappropriated £202.17s.9d (worth over £9,000 in today’s money) plus two cottages at Old Sodbury, which he then sold. The case was taken over by the Director of Public Prosecutions following an initial hearing. My grandfather John gave evidence citing his address as ​1 The Firs, Kingsdown, and the case was referred to the Court of Assize. Eventually John and his son Arthur were appointed new trustees of the estate and the sales repudiated. Reginald Trenfield was sentenced to a term of imprisonment with hard labour, although the Brooke family never recovered any of the money he had stolen from them.
When he was released from prison, Mr Trenfield called on my grandfather and asked for a sizeable loan to give him a fresh start in life, which he swore he would repay. He had apparently become an alcoholic after he left the army. John did let him have the money, although he knew from the outset that he would never get it back. He later told my mother that he should at least give Trenfield the chance to redeem himself and it would have been permanently on his conscience had he denied him that opportunity. This tells us a lot about the sort of man John was.

Reginald was sentenced on 30/10/1922 to 12 months jail with hard labour.

He was struck off the list of solicitors in 1923.

In 1939 we find him living at 41 Aspley Road, Bristol and is working as a clerk, secretary, salesman.

Reginald died in 1959.

All medals are original and are mounted as worn with original silk ribbons.

Records show him only to be entitled to a WWI Pair.