Trevelyan was an English historian whose work, written for the general reader as much as for the history student, shows an appreciation for the Whig traiditon in English thought and reflects a keen interest in the Anglo-Saxon element in the English constitution. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became the Regius Professor of modern history at Cambridge in 1927 and master of Trinity College in 1940, retiring in 1951.