George Hysteron-Proteron
Encyclopedia
Colonel
the Hon. George Hysteron-Proteron is a fictional character created by author J. K. Stanford
, He is introduced as a British
soldier, sporting gun
, and Lord of the manor
of Five Mile Wallop, Cambridgeshire
. He has been described as "a comic figure of sporting literature" and a "fanatical grouse
shot".
In his London
home, the Qu'hais' Club
, he was known as The Old Grouse-Cock.
... On one occasion at breakfast he sent for the waiter and said, in my hearing, 'Didn't I order mutton cutlets with blood? There's no blood in these! Take them away!' "
The character first appeared in Stanford's first book, The Twelfth (1944), which was revised in 1964 as The Twelfth and After: being the life and death of George Hysteron-Proteron. The original book, The Twelfth, was written between 1942 and 1943 in the North African desert, while the author was serving with the British Eighth Army between El Alamein
and Gabès
.
A member of Boodle's
wrote after receiving the book as a Christmas present in 1944: "I see the author mentions Boodle's. I don't know if he is a member here but there are six George Proterons sitting round me in the smoking-room at the moment."
The character's surname clearly originates in the term hysteron proteron
, a rhetoric
al device.
, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
"and the Badminton Library
".
While still in the cot, he shot his nanny
in the backside with a pea-shooter
.
and the Boer War
and in France
during World War I
, which he ended in 1918 as a Billeting Officer.
. He kept "a most elaborate game book" (that is, a detailed record of everything he killed) which in 1938 was in its twentieth volume. He had then shot "about 200,000 head".
", who when she died left her money equally between the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
and the Society for the Abolition of Bloodsports
. Hysteron-Proteron's first cousin Randolph Hysteron was a novelist whose "incredibly modern novels" included What the hell does it matter? and God will call it Quits. His heroes were "lonely and apt to hang round brothels", and Hysteron-Proteron read his books.
Unmarried, Hysteron-Proteron's heir was a nephew, said in 1938 to be "in quod at this moment for dangerous driving on the Kingston By-pass".
, after his Friday and Saturday sport. However, after giving up shooting in 1938, he would often put on a dark blue suit, stiff white collar, spats and bowler hat
and attend church parade in the family pew
.
Hysteron-Proteron found the Church of England
's hymn
s ominous, and once asked the Vicar
to lend him some books on the After-life, explaining "When I was a boy, it was just plain heaven
and hell
, and me nurse always insisted I should never see the first. You know what I mean: what are we in for?" He went on to explain his fears of milling around with the Cherubim: "I dislike crowds... I can't stand community singin'! All that harpin' and allelujerin' and celestial choirs. Frightens me... frightful glare there must be off the golden pavements. Don't like the prospect, meself!" He found the Vicar astonishingly ill-informed and uneasy.
, a form in which he wakes up, as he nears the end of his shooting career, on the morning of the Twelfth of August
. Finding himself as a grouse on a grouse moor as the season begins, Hysteron-Proteron is of course able to use his life-time of experience as a game shot to escape death at the hands of his shooting friends. Indeed, he goes so far as to organize his fellow grouse to outwit the guns.
in 1918, for military services. He was also Patron and President of the Five Mile Wallop Horticultural Society
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
the Hon. George Hysteron-Proteron is a fictional character created by author J. K. Stanford
J. K. Stanford
John Keith Stanford OBE MC was a British writer of the mid 20th century.He was educated at Rugby School and St. John's College, Oxford. Stanford was commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment in 1915 and was attached to the Tank Corps from 1917. He ended the First World War with the rank of...
, He is introduced as a British
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
soldier, sporting gun
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
, and Lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Five Mile Wallop, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. He has been described as "a comic figure of sporting literature" and a "fanatical grouse
Grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes. They are sometimes considered a family Tetraonidae, though the American Ornithologists' Union and many others include grouse as a subfamily Tetraoninae in the family Phasianidae...
shot".
In his London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
home, the Qu'hais' Club
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...
, he was known as The Old Grouse-Cock.
Origin and creation
Hysteron-Proteron's creator J. K. Stanford wrote in 1964 that "George... owed his origin to a face in the East India ClubEast India Club
The East India, Devonshire, Sports and Public Schools' Club, usually known as the East India Club, is a gentlemen's club founded in 1849 and situated at 16 St. James's Square in London...
... On one occasion at breakfast he sent for the waiter and said, in my hearing, 'Didn't I order mutton cutlets with blood? There's no blood in these! Take them away!' "
The character first appeared in Stanford's first book, The Twelfth (1944), which was revised in 1964 as The Twelfth and After: being the life and death of George Hysteron-Proteron. The original book, The Twelfth, was written between 1942 and 1943 in the North African desert, while the author was serving with the British Eighth Army between El Alamein
El Alamein
El Alamein is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. As of 2007, it has a local population of 7,397 inhabitants.- Climate :...
and Gabès
Gabès
Gabès , also spelt Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, the ancient Tacape, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate, a province of Tunisia. It lies on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 116,323 it is the 6th largest Tunisian city.-History:Strabo refers to Tacape as an...
.
A member of Boodle's
Boodle's
Boodle's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1762, at 49-51 Pall Mall, London by Lord Shelburne the future Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the club came to be known after the name of its head waiter Edward Boodle....
wrote after receiving the book as a Christmas present in 1944: "I see the author mentions Boodle's. I don't know if he is a member here but there are six George Proterons sitting round me in the smoking-room at the moment."
The character's surname clearly originates in the term hysteron proteron
Hysteron proteron
The hysteron proteron is a rhetorical device in which the first key word of the idea refers to something that happens temporally later than the second key word...
, a rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
al device.
Early life
Hysteron-Proteron was educated at EtonEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
"and the Badminton Library
Badminton Library
The Badminton Library, called in full The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes, was a sporting and publishing project conceived and founded by Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort . Between 1885 and 1902 it developed into a series of sporting books which aimed to cover comprehensively all major...
".
While still in the cot, he shot his nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
in the backside with a pea-shooter
Pea shooter (toy)
The peashooter is a toy version of the blowgun or blowpipe. Its usually a tube that is either to be blow into or has some kind of lastic mechanism which launches its ammo. As the name suggests the normal ammunition is peas , though other seeds, fruits, improvised darts, or wadded up paper can also...
.
Military career
He fought with the Black Scots regiment in MatabelelandFirst Matabele War
The First Matabele War was fought in 1893-1894 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele people. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, avoided outright war with the British settlers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of the European weapons...
and the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
and in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which he ended in 1918 as a Billeting Officer.
Sportsman
Hysteron-Proteron was said to be "one of the ten or twelve best shots in the kingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He kept "a most elaborate game book" (that is, a detailed record of everything he killed) which in 1938 was in its twentieth volume. He had then shot "about 200,000 head".
Family
Hysteron-Proteron was a younger son of Lord Parable, while his mother was "a Fleuchary of Brawl, in north Sunderland". His half-brother William Proteron was a Master of Foxhounds, but the two men did not speak to each other for thirty years, this being in connection with their rivalry to inherit the fortune of "a very rich but invalid Hysteron aunt in SuffolkSuffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
", who when she died left her money equally between the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. In 2009 the RSPCA investigated 141,280 cruelty complaints and collected and rescued 135,293 animals...
and the Society for the Abolition of Bloodsports
League Against Cruel Sports
The League Against Cruel Sports are an animal welfare organisation that campaigns against all blood sports including bull fighting, fox hunting and hare coursing. It also campaigns to ban the manufacture, sale and use of snares, for the regulation of greyhound racing and for an end to commercial...
. Hysteron-Proteron's first cousin Randolph Hysteron was a novelist whose "incredibly modern novels" included What the hell does it matter? and God will call it Quits. His heroes were "lonely and apt to hang round brothels", and Hysteron-Proteron read his books.
Unmarried, Hysteron-Proteron's heir was a nephew, said in 1938 to be "in quod at this moment for dangerous driving on the Kingston By-pass".
Religion
Until his final four years, Hysteron-Proteron's attendance at church was spasmodic, Sunday being his morning for going round his nests and rearing-field with the estate's head keeperGamekeeper
A gamekeeper is a person who manages an area of countryside to make sure there is enough game for shooting, or fish for angling, and who actively manages areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland for the benefit of game birds, deer, fish and wildlife in general.Typically, a gamekeeper is...
, after his Friday and Saturday sport. However, after giving up shooting in 1938, he would often put on a dark blue suit, stiff white collar, spats and bowler hat
Bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
and attend church parade in the family pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
.
Hysteron-Proteron found the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
's hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s ominous, and once asked the Vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
to lend him some books on the After-life, explaining "When I was a boy, it was just plain heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, and me nurse always insisted I should never see the first. You know what I mean: what are we in for?" He went on to explain his fears of milling around with the Cherubim: "I dislike crowds... I can't stand community singin'! All that harpin' and allelujerin' and celestial choirs. Frightens me... frightful glare there must be off the golden pavements. Don't like the prospect, meself!" He found the Vicar astonishingly ill-informed and uneasy.
Life as a bird
Stanford's The Twelfth and After is largely the account of Hysteron-Proteron's adventures in the shape of a red grouseRed grouse
The Red Grouse is a medium sized bird of the grouse family which is found in heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It is usually classified as a subspecies of the Willow Grouse but is sometimes considered to be a separate species Lagopus scoticus...
, a form in which he wakes up, as he nears the end of his shooting career, on the morning of the Twelfth of August
Glorious Twelfth
The Glorious Twelfth is usually used to refer to 12 August, the start of the shooting season for Red Grouse and to a lesser extent the Ptarmigan in the United Kingdom. This is one of the busiest days in the shooting season, with large amounts of game being shot...
. Finding himself as a grouse on a grouse moor as the season begins, Hysteron-Proteron is of course able to use his life-time of experience as a game shot to escape death at the hands of his shooting friends. Indeed, he goes so far as to organize his fellow grouse to outwit the guns.
Honours
Hysteron-Proteron was appointed a Companion of the Order of the BathOrder of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
in 1918, for military services. He was also Patron and President of the Five Mile Wallop Horticultural Society
External links
- The Twelfth and after at isbndb.com
- The twelfth and after being the life and death of George Hysteron-Proteron at openlibrary.org