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I have two old horse books inscribed by Captain M V Le P Trench, Duke of Wellington's Regiment. I have found his photo on your site at Kimberley so I know he fought in the Boer War. He clearly studied the books and made many notes. The books are both by Captain Hayes so are classics in the horse world. He was interested in horse anatomy and has drawn a good diagram of a horse's skeleton which is inserted in the book. He got the books in 1908 and 1913 respectively. It would be lovely to find out a bit more about the man who read these books so closely.

Good evening and welcome to this forum, sorry for the late reply!

Mordaunt Vereker Le Poer Trench came from a old military family here in Great Britain, with regards to his service in the Anglo Boer War he is shown in WO100/186 page 2 and in WO100/331 page 213 for the QSA/KSA, the originals of which are to be found at the TNA Kew.
His WO76 service record is also to be found there, WO76/334/37, he might also be mentioned in WO25.
You may also wish to have a look at the Sandhurst Registers and the published Harts Army lists.

Quite a character!

Again sorry for the delay, I seem to spend all my time moving snow from A to B at the moment!
Best regards Frank

Thank you! Isn't the Internet an incredible thing? How nice to know his full name and the books feel a bit different now a know a little about their first owner. He was clearly a keen horseman with a true thirst for knowledge. My daughter has told her school about the unknown soldier who is no longer so unknown.

Thank you once again and good luck with the snow. We have none in this part of Cumbria which is unusual as we usually have severe weather here.

Regards,

Gayle

Good evening Gayle,
You are welcome!
Regards again Frank

Gayle,

Its great that you have identified the owner of these books. Doing a little research on the man I see that he was born on 26 June 1880, son of William Power Bunbury Trench and Elizabeth Marianne Pennington Sowton. He married Lucy Ruck in 1914 and they has two children, Elizabeth born in 1916 and Patricia born in 1919.

I love that middle name 'Power'!

In 1940 Mordaunt authored a book on his old regiment entitled 'A Short History of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding)'. It really was quite short at only 32 pages.

Best wishes
David