Trevor was born in Barnet as an only child. His father, Norman, who was originally from South Wales, was a pharmacist-optician who ran a chemist’s shop in Kentish Town. During the Second World War the family was bombed out and moved from London to Ammanford in Carmarthenshire. Trevor was still only four years old at this time. Norman had been in professional practice since 1927 but subsequently qualified in optics as well. He was admitted to membership of the British Optical Association as late as January 1957, when already aged fifty. The young Trevor trained in optics only shortly afterwards at The Northampton College of Advanced Technology (now City, University of London). He was admitted as a member of the British Optical Association in February 1961, and then to the Opticians Register in June of that same year.
Father and son were both registered in independent practice at 31 College Street in Ammanford from the early 1960s, and were well respected in the community. Trevor’s mother continued to serve as one of the receptionists until the early 1970s. He had first met his wife Brenda, a mathematician, on a train from London to Wales around 1955 and they married in 1962, choosing to settle in Killay, Swansea. Whilst continuing in practice from College St, Trevor also provided services from two 'satellite' locations within the premises of Thorne's Chemist on Gower Road in Killay from the mid-1960s, and also at James' Chemist on the Kings Road in Llandovery, from the early 1970s. He used to attend the South Wales Optical Committee meetings. Trevor’s son Paul also qualified as an optometrist in 1990 and set up in practice in Neyland, Pembrokeshire. The two of them were among the first optometrists in Wales to offer fundus photography, each having purchased a Canon CR-45NM in 1992.
Around 1997, Trevor re-located his practice to the house where he had grown up since the age of four and he kept this on despite moving home, with his wife, to Pembrokeshire in 2000. On his retirement from optometry he sold his practice in 2005, but then assisted his son with dispensing duties in Neyland, until that practice closed in 2011. He was primary carer for his wife from 2018 when she developed mild cognitive issues, but had himself been in good health for all of his life until the onset of cancer symptoms early in 2022. He passed away peacefully at home on 7 September 2023, the day before his 61st wedding anniversary.