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Henry Trevor Lenton

British naval historian (1924-2009)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ5729311 ↗
Source-derived summary

Henry Trevor Lenton (8 February 1924 – 7 May 2009) was an English naval historian, specialising in the area of 20th-century naval history and warship design. He served in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy during World War II before becoming a journalist and author.

Life

Born in Rangoon, Burma in 1924, Lenton and his family returned to Britain in 1930. He joined the Merchant Navy at age 15 in 1939 and transferred to the Royal Navy Reserve in 1941 as a midshipman. Lenton was promoted to sub-lieutenant by the end of that year and he was a lieutenant aboard the light cruiser HMS Mauritius in 1944. That same year he volunteered for service in the Royal Indian Navy and was commanding the auxiliary patrol vessel Oostkapelle in 1945. He was a lieutenant commander when World War II ended and was discharged in 1947.

He returned to the Merchant Navy and eventually was rated as Master. Lenton joined the journal Shipbuilding and Shipping Record in 1960 and began writing books and articles. He launched Naval Record Magazine in 1963 which became the leading publication on current naval production at that time.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Henry Trevor Lenton” as british naval historian (1924-2009). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1924, 2009, 1930, 1939—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1924-02-08. The account is most persuasive where Henry, Trevor and Lenton can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british naval historian (1924-2009). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5729311. VIAF identifies the subject as 40391602. The Library of Congress control number is n80037010. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2009, 1930 and 1939.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry Trevor Lenton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Henry Trevor Lenton primary sources, Henry Trevor Lenton archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Henry Trevor Lenton”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Henry Trevor Lenton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.