TRIMBLE, ROBERT (1824-99) was born in the neighbourhood of Belfast and educated at the Grammar School there. He went to the United States in the forties, back to Manchester in the fifties, and settled in Liverpool representing the New York firm of William Watson and Co. He became a partner in the firm just before the Civil War, in which he worked strenuously for the northern cause. At the close of the war he received a silver medal in recognition of his services to liberated negroes. While in England Trimble imbibed the principles of Manchester liberalism, advocating free trade, secular education and the abolition of the state church. He participated in the early volunteer movement, being a member of the first battery raised at Garston, Lancashire, and assisting to raise a second and third battery. Appointed a lieutenant-colonel, he completed the raising of a brigade (then known as the 16th, and later as the 6th Lancashire), which he commanded until 1875, when he was promoted colonel. In 1875 Trimble sailed with his family for New Zealand and became one of the first settlers on the Moa block subdivision near Inglewood. He took an active part in local affairs, being a member of the Inglewood town board and first chairman of the Taranaki county council. In 1879 he was elected to Parliament for Grey and Bell, which he represented until 1881. From 1881-87 he represented Taranaki. At the time of the Parihaka scare he drilled the Inglewood volunteers. In later years he was for some time a judge of the native land court.

Trimble married (1856) a daughter of Alderman Heywood, of Manchester. He died on 5 Sep 1899.

Cycl. N.Z., vi (p); N.Z. Times, 11 Sep 1879; Taranaki Herald, 6 Sep 1899. Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 201

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