Burke Trend, Baron Trend

Burke St John Trend, Baron Trend, GCB, CVO, PC (2 January 1914 – 21 July 1987)[1] was a British civil servant and later Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Trend was educated at Whitgift School and Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained first class honours in classics. He then joined the Civil Service, spending most of his career in the Treasury. He became Cabinet Secretary under both Harold Wilson and Ted Heath between 1963 to 1973. He was made a life peer as Baron Trend of Greenwich in Greater London in 1974.

His son, Michael Trend, was a Conservative Member of Parliament until 2005. He also had another son named Patrick and a grandson called Hector, and two grandaughters called Cassie and Tabitha.

He led an investigation in the 1970s into allegations of penetration of the British Secret Services from before World War II until the 1960s. His conclusion was that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations. Peter Wright in his memoirs, Spycatcher, discusses Trend and his report.[2]

References

Government offices
Preceded by
Sir Norman Brook
Cabinet Secretary
1963–1973
Succeeded by
Sir John Hunt
Academic offices
Preceded by
Sir Walter Fraser Oakeshott
Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford
1973–1983
Succeeded by
Vivian H. H. Green