Captain Lancaster, St Peter's Preparatory School, Weston-Super-Mar

[IPT]

This retired Great War officer, was a master at St Peter's in 1925, seemingly suffering from shell shock, and was still there at the outbreak of WW2.

He called John Cleese "six foot of chewed string", and was Charles Higham's favourite master, and he descibed him thus: " a retired army officer with sandy hair and moustache, a good line in tweeds, a permanent tan from India, and a pleasant aroma of expensive pipe tobacco".

Dahl, however, gave him an absolute pasting. There was the "Captain Lancaster" character in "Danny, the Champion of the World", and in "Boy", he gives him the name "Captain Hardcastle";

"This man was slim and wiry and he played football. On the football field he wore white running shorts and white gymshoes and short white socks. His legs were as hard and thin as ram’s legs and the skin around his calves was almost exactly the colour of mutton fat. The hair on his head was not ginger. It was brilliant dark vermilion, like a ripe orange, and it was plastered back with immense quantities of brilliantine in the same fashion as the Headmaster’s. The parting on his hair was a white line straight down the middle of the scalp, so straight it could only have been made with a ruler. On either side of the parting you could see the comb tracks running back through the greasy orange hair like little tramlines.

Captain Hardcastle sported a moustache that was the same colour as his hair, and oh what a moustache it was! A truly terrifying sight, a thick orange hedge that sprouted and flourished between his nose and his upper lip and ran clear across his face from the middle of one cheek to the middle of the other. But this was not one of those nailbrush moustaches, all short and clipped and bristly. Nor was it long and droopy in the walrus style. Instead, it was curled most splendidly upwards all the way along as though it had had a permanent wave put into it or possibly curling tongs heated in the mornings over a tiny flame of methylated spirits. The only other way he could have achieved this curling effect, we boys decided, was by prolonged upward brushing with a hard toothbrush in front of the looking glass every morning.

Behind the moustache there lived an inflamed and savage face with a deeply corrugated brow that indicated a very limited intelligence. “Life is a puzzlement,” the corrugated brow seemed to be saying, “and the world is a dangerous place. All men are enemies and small boys are insects that will turn and bite you if you don’t get them first and squash them hard.”

Captain Hardcastle was never still. His orange head twitched and jerked perpetually from side to side in the most alarming fashion, and each twitch was accompanied by a little grunt that came out of the nostrils.

He had been a soldier in the army in the Great War and that, of course, was how he had received his title. But even small insects like us knew that “Captain” was not a very exalted rank and only a man with little else to boast about would hang on to it in civilian life. It was bad enough to keep calling yourself “Major” after it was all over, but “Captain” was the bottoms.

Rumour had it that the constant twitching and jerking and snorting was caused by something called shell-shock, but we were not quite sure what that was. We took it to mean that an explosive object had gone off very close to him with such an enormous bang that it had made him jump high in the air and he hadn’t stopped jumping since."

The rest is here - http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0805-dahl.html

School records show that the stripe was issued by Captain Lancaster.

Does anyone know who he was?

[Colin W Taylor]

IPT,

Searching for 'Lancaster' in the medal rolls brings up a lot of hits. Likewise, the surname will be difficult to search for amongst files at Kew or the London Gazette.

Do the school records provide any further information - is there a published 'roll of service' with the 'roll of honour' like some schools? Most mention masters who served. Even a first name or initials might help.

Kind regards

Colin

[IPT]

Thanks, Colin.

I think i've cracked it. Found him in the Repton School Register.

This chap was already on my radar, as i'd found a few mentions of him on the forum, and elsewhere.

This subject has been of interest with regard to one officer of the 1 Bn Dorset Regt in particular - Capt. Stephen Lancaster. He distinguished himself greatly both on the First Day of the Somme when he, as senior officer present was in charge of a party of men holding the German Front Line trenches. He gets specific mention in both the unit War Diary and that of Ernest Shepherd which was subsequently published. He also distinguished himself later in the same campaign being mentioned in the diary specifically. I was surprised that despite all this he failed to gain any formal recognition.

When I bought his medals I was looking forward to finding his file at Kew and all it would reveal. In fact it turned out to be quite slim, containing mainly correspondence between himself and the War Office relating to his dismay/disgust at his medals being named to him as Captain, when he was a Major in the field. As the War Office pointed out to him, his period as Acting Major was just short of that required to permit his medals to be named to him in that rank or retire as Major (although he signed himself as such!)

Regards
Steve

Many came from the party who held out in the Liepzig Salient itself, under the command of Captain Lancaster. He was an officer who seems to have suffered severely following this battle, eventually being invalided out of the Army suffering from Neurasthenia.

Apparently, he was also the basis for the character "Trunchbull" in "Matilda"

[Colin W Taylor]

IPT,

Excellent - glad you've got your answer.

I've not got my copy to hand but does he get a mention in Charles Douie's 'Weary Road'? I can't think of any other personal accounts from 1st Dorsets.

Kind regards

Colin

[helpjpl]

Born 1 June 1894 in Halliwell, Lancs, and baptised at St Paul's Vicarage, Halliwell, on 29 July 1894 by his father Thomas, Clerk in Holy Orders.

In 1901 Stephen (6) was living in Cromer with his father Thomas Lancaster (43); Mother Effie Priscilla (39); sister Effie Mary (3); brother Cuthbert Buxton (2); brother Raymond Lancelot (8 months)

Sibling: Cuthbert Buxton Lancaster - Pte 766741, 28th (County of London) Battalion (Artists Rifles). Assistant Superintendent of Police, Malapuram. Killed in ambush 1921-

Lot 194, Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria (23 September 2011) | Dix Noonan Webb

Sibling: Raymond Lancelot Lancaster, born 1900, was a Medical Practitioner and died on Ascension Island in 1953

Sibling: Philip Cloudysley Lancaster was born in 1902. He gained his Royal Aero Club Certificate in 1934, worked as a Forestry Engineer in Canada and Nigeria, and died in Herts in 1978.

Sibling: Oliver Fowell Lancaster was born in 1904. He died in 1974 and is buried in Montevideo

Stephen Lancaster's death was registered Jan-Feb-Mar 1971 in Hendon.

JP

[IPT]

Thanks J P.

I'd found two of the brothers, but hadn't come across the others. They all certainly liked to travel!

The war had obviously had a terrible effect on Captain Lancaster's nerves, and perhaps that prevented him from doing the same.

[SPotter]

Very interested to learn more about Capt. Lancaster, thanks!

Regards

Steve

[Guest]

I was taught by 'Capio' as he was known to us boys, whilst at St Peter's in 1960-61; Then, he was silver-haired, ram-rod straight, fierce but with a bright twinkle in his eye which sadly appears never to have illuminated Roald Dahl's life! He favoured orangey brown tweed jackets, taught history and Latin as well as PT, boxing and shooting. At age 12-13 I was a relatively tall, strong but gangly lad and recall with special fondness one particular boxing lesson. Capio was teaching us to feint to the stomach and then punch to the chin. It is testament to his skills as a teacher that I instantly perfected this move whereupon, to my extreme embarrassment, Capio glazed and sank to the floor. He was up in an instant and silenced my profuse apologies with hearty congratulations.

 

I remember the man with respect and affection and am therefore pleased to share the Headmaster, Geoffrey Tolson's, farewell tribute in the School Magazine, as attached.

 

Also, whilst at St Peter's, we were taught briefly by an exceedingly tall 'old boy' of the school during his 'Year Out' before Cambridge. I particularly remember a group of us enthusiastic young cricketers listening spellbound as this very talented raconteur entertained us with tales of an hilarious village cricket match. It was several years later that I recognised John Cleese with David Frost, Ronnie and Ronnie etc on TW3. 

Capio.pdf

[edwin astill]

The Regimental History mentions Capt. Lancaster reading a raid on the enemy line on 7th Sept 1916.  A "push-pipe" was successfully fired, but bombing proved too much for the assault party.  Lancaster appears to have escaped unscathed.

 

Edwin