Ashtown was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford.[2] He was a hard-line Unionist; in 1906–10 he edited a monthly publication, Grievances from Ireland, which denounced all political expressions of Irish nationalism as treasonable. His hunting lodge at Ballymacarbry, County Waterford, was damaged by bombs and arson in 1907 and destroyed by the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence.[3]
Ashtown was elected as an Irish representative peer in the House of Lords in November 1908, after an unsuccessful attempt in January 1908. He and Arthur Maxwell, 11th Baron Farnham, received an equal number of votes, with his name ultimately drawn from a glass in according with the procedures of the House. He was declared bankrupt in 1912, but his seat in the House of Lords was not declared vacant until 1915. He was also elected to the Galway County Council in 1911, to "the surprise and dismay of nationalist commentators".[2]
Legal issues
In 1907, a "crude bomb" exploded at Ashtown's residence in Waterford, which he attributed to supporters of the boycott against his properties. However, local officials considered it to have been a publicity stunt orchestrated by Ashtown. He was charged with staging the bombing but was acquitted due to inconclusive evidence.[2]
In 1924, Ashtown was arrested in Dublin and charged with assaulting two schoolboys on separate occasions while travelling on the Dublin and South Eastern Railway. He was held on remand, with bail being refused.[4] He eventually pleaded guilty to common assault and was fined £100 (equivalent to $7,200 in 2023), with costs of £30 (equivalent to $2,200 in 2023).[5] According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, the assaults were of a sexual nature, although Ashtown justified them as a "misunderstanding of his habit of slapping people on the knee or back while talking to them".[2]
Personal life
In 1894, Ashtown married Violet Grace Cosby, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. Two of his sons, Frederic Sydney Trench and Arthur Cosby Trench, died in World War I. His eldest at the Somme in 1916 and his youngest of the Spanish flu in 1918. He died on 20 March 1946, aged 77, and was succeeded in the barony by his second son Robert Power Trench.[2]
Curtis, Lewis P. "The Last Gasp of Southern Unionism: Lord Ashtown of Woodlawn". Éire-Ireland. 40 (3): 140–188. doi:10.1353/eir.2005.0018.
Kieran Jordan (ed.), Kiltullagh Killimordaly As the Centuries Passed: A History from 1500-1900, Kiltullagh/Killimordaly Historical Society (2000), ISBN0-9538684-0-0
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