CAPTAIN SYDNEY VYVYAN TREVENEN, MC
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
10TH JUNE 1918 AGE 24
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
The quotation marks make this a very specific reference; you may think that there are a lot of references to God's hands in the bible but in fact there are only two that actually say, "in the hand of God": Wisdom 3:1 and Ecclesiastes 9:1. And both say pretty much the same thing: that the righteous are in the hand of God. If I were to choose I would say that Sydney Trevenen's mother, who chose the inscription, was referring to the Book of Wisdom since the line comes in one of the readings suggested by the Book of Common Prayer for the service of the Burial of the Dead:
"But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are at peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet their hope is full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As Gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering."
WISDOM 3 1-6
'Righteous' is not a word in common use today - other than as self-righteous and righteous indignation and both of these give the word a negative connotation - it means to be a virtuous, to be a morally good person.
Sydney Trevenen was a professional soldier, educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Gazetted second lieutenant in December 1913, he had been in France with the 49th Battery, 40th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, since 20 August 1914, the very earliest days of the war. In 1916 he won a Military Cross for "crawling a thousand yards across No Man's Land" in order to bring back vital information. Soon after this the Gloucestershire Echo reported that he had been wounded. There is no follow up information to this, but on 11 June 1918 the same paper reported that Trevenen had been wounded for a second time. This time the follow up came three days later:
TREVENEN - On 10th June, at a hospital in France, of septic bronchial pneumonia, following gas poisoning, Capt. Sydney Vyvyan Trevenen, MC, RFA, only and dearly-loved son of the late SW Trevenen and Mrs Trevenen, of Welton, Christ Church Road, Cheltenham.