Little light can be shed on benefactor Trimble

It has been difficult to gather much information about the background of Dr Trimble. An intensely-private man, he has left us with few records of his personal life.
A search of the various files at the Archive has brought no personal papers to light, and contact with various family members has shed no light on his personal life.
A search of the records at Alexander Turnbull Library uncovered some information on his family background and contact with other researchers has thrown some light on the afforestation issue of the 1930s.
Montfort Trimble was the son of Colonel Robert Trimble and his wife Jane Heywood. Robert Trimble was born near Belfast in 1824 and was educated at a local grammar school. He was employed for a period in the United States but returned to England in the 1850s and became the English partner in an importing firm.
During the American Civil War he was a strong supporter of the northern forces and was secretary of the Manchester Emancipation Society.
He wrote several pamphlets espousing the cause of emancipation, and after the war he was presented with a silver medal for the work he had undertaken assisting liberated Negro slaves.
A radical liberal, he was a strong supporter of Gladstone and advocated free trade, secular education and the abolishment of the state church.
He was also a keen volunteer and rose to be colonel of the 15th Lancashire Regiment.
In 1875 he was induced to migrate to New Zealand, where he took up land near Inglewood, establishing a sawmill as he cleared his 2000-acre bush property.
He also became involved in local politics, serving on town boards and acting as chairman of the first Taranaki County Council.
He served as a Member of Parliament from 1879 until 1887, and was regarded as having a good understanding of Maori issues.
He later served as a judge in the Native Land Court.
Colonel Robert Trimble died in 1899; his wife died in 1925.
Colonel Trimble was fondly remembered in several obituaries published both in New Zealand and in England, where he was still highly regarded.
One English obituary described him as "incarnation of fearless reform and enthusiastic philanthropy".
The Trimbles left a family of four sons and three daughters. Information on the daughters has been difficult to track, but a little is known of each of the sons.
Alfred, the eldest, worked for the Department of Courts in several functions.
William, the second son, also followed a career in the public service but during a period of retrenchment he was discharged and opened a bookshop in Dunedin.
He subsequently worked for a period as the Hocken librarian and is credited with undertaking the first cataloguing of the collection.
He was also an expert on the work of the American poet Walt Whitman.
When William died he donated his large collection of Whitman's work to the Dunedin Public Library.
Montfort was the third son.
The fourth son, Harold, lived on the family farm, Riversdale near Inglewood, where he died.
The information on the daughters is scanty.
In 1942 Nora donated the residue of her father's library, including some works he had written on the slavery issue, to the Alexander Turnbull Library.
The Trimble family seems to have been a politically liberal one, with family members having strong literary interest.
Colonel Trimble's interest in Maori culture was to be followed by Montfort and William Trimble's interest in the work of a poet whose major theme was the regenerative power of nature is also echoed in Montfort's interest.
Montfort Trimble was born in 1863, in England, and came to Taranaki with the rest of his family in 1875.
He was educated in New Plymouth and then studied law, graduating a Bachelor of Law from Victoria University in March 1891.
Pictured: the presentation of first Trimble bequest cheque, August 1953. County chairman J.W. Colquhoun is receiving the money.