General Sir Trevor Chute, KCB (31 July 1816 – 12 March 1886) was an Irish-born officer who served in the British Army during the Victorian era.

Arriving in the country in May 1861, Chute and his regiment was involved in the construction of the Great South Road, which extended from Drury to the Waikato River.

[2] Chute returned to New Zealand as a major-general in September 1865, replacing General Duncan Cameron as commander of the British forces in the country.

There were high tensions between colonists and Māori of Taranaki due to Governor George Grey's confiscation of land in the area despite a proclamation of peace.

A series of ambushes and murders mounted by Māori against British troops and colonists from mid-1865[4] prompted Grey to task Chute with carrying out offensive operations against the Taranaki tribes.

[4] After developing a strategy for offensive operations with his primary subordinate in Taranaki, Colonel Henry Warre, Chute began his march from Wanganui on 3 January 1866 with a force of 620 men.

[4] Sweeping across the south and centre of Taranaki, his expedition, a mixture of British soldiers, local militia and kūpapa (pro-Government Māori), destroyed several, mostly undefended, villages between the Waitōtara River and Mount Egmont.

His tactics were direct; little reconnaissance was carried out when preparing for attacks on villages and instead his force simply mounted a frontal assault, taking few prisoners.

Reduced to eating their pack horses, a supply column brought relief and Chute and his men arrived in New Plymouth on 3 February 1866.