The Whimsical Horace de Vere Cole

The English upper class has for centuries been littered with eccentric individuals whose unconventional behaviour has left the more rationally minded bemused. Whether this is due to generations of inbreeding, or simply the result of boredom caused by having too much leisure time, remains a matter for conjecture. Whatever the reason for their outlandish behaviour, there is surely no better example of the genre than Horace de Vere Cole, who seems to have stepped straight out of the pages of a P. G. Wodehouse novel, although even Bertie Wooster would surely have regarded his conduct as beyond the pale. A classic example of truth being stranger than fiction.

Horace was born on 5^th May 1881 in Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland. His mother, Mary de Vere was heiress of Sir Stephen de Vere and related to the de Vere Earls of Oxford. In addition, his paternal grandfather had made a fortune dealing in quinine, a chemical used in the treatment of malaria and also an ingredient of tonic water. However, it is not for his privileged family background that he is primarily remembered today. Horace de Vere Cole was to take the art of pranking to a whole other level, and in so doing, cement his place in the hierarchy of English upper class eccentrics.

His first recorded prank occurred whilst he was an undergraduate at Cambridge. In March 1905, on learning that the Sultan of Zanzibar was visiting London, Cole sent a telegram to the Mayor of Cambridge, informing him that the Sultan’s uncle and entourage had decided to pay a visit to the famous university city, and asking him to show them around. Horace and his friend Adrian Stephen (the brother of author Virginia Woolf), dressed up in robes and turbans and applied heavy makeup in order to appear of African origin. The mayor and town clerk duly provided the imposters with a reception followed by a comprehensive tour of the university, before returning them to the train station in order for them to make their journey back to London. The pair apparently boarded the train, but then alighted a few carriages down and simply left through a side exit of the station.

However, Horace de Vere Cole is best remembered for a prank that became known as the Dreadnought hoax. In the early twentieth century, HMS Dreadnought was the most powerful and technologically advanced battleship afloat, and was understandably the pride of the British Royal Navy. On 7^th February 1910, Cole along with Virginia Woolf, Adrian Stephen, Guy Ridley, Anthony Buxton, and Duncan Grant, carried out a deception that was so successful, it caused a minor sensation at the time and left the naval hierarchy severely embarrassed. Woolf, Grant, Buxton and Ridley donned robes and turbans and applied skin darkening makeup and fake beards, in order to impersonate members of the Abyssinian royal family. Stephen and Cole remained in western attire, with the former acting as interpreter and the latter claiming to be “Herbert Cholmondeley” of the Foreign Office.

At Paddington Station in London the party was given a VIP coach for the train journey to Weymouth, from where they were taken directly to HMS Dreadnought. They were welcomed with an honour guard, although as an Abyssinian flag could not be found, the navy decided to use the flag of Zanzibar instead and the band played the Zanzibar national anthem. The group inspected the fleet and bestowed fake military honours on a number of officers. Since none of the imposters were familiar with the various languages spoken by Abyssinians, they spoke in gibberish, using words and phrases they had learned from Greek and Latin, and when expressing delight, enthusiastically declared “Bunga Bunga”. Unfortunately, the party was unable to accept the offer of a celebratory meal, as they were concerned that the act of chewing would cause their fake beards to fall off.

When the prank was revealed the navy demanded the arrest of Cole, as ringleader. However, as he had not broken any law, the authorities were powerless to act. Thereafter it was not uncommon for members of the public to shout “Bunga Bunga” when spotting a naval officer in the street. In 1915, during the First World War, HMS Dreadnought sank a German submarine. Among the congratulatory telegrams was one that simply read “Bunga Bunga”.

While on honeymoon in Italy Cole deposited piles of horse manure in Venice, which caused much consternation among the locals, not least because there were no horses in the city, and it could only be reached by boat. On another occasion in London, Cole challenged Member of Parliament Oliver Locker-Lampson to a running race, with Cole so confident of victory that he gave the MP a ten yard head start. However, he had slipped his gold watch into Locker-Lampson’s pocket, and as the sprinting pair approached a policeman, Cole began shouting “Stop thief!” The unfortunate politician was immediately arrested, although he was released without charge when the prank was revealed. Cole, on the other hand was fined £5 for breaching the peace.

As a theatre critic he came up with a unique way of expressing his displeasure. Reacting to a play he considered pretentious, he purchased eight tickets with predetermined seat numbers for a performance, and gave the tickets to eight bald men who each had a letter painted on their heads. When they took their seats the word “BOLLOCKS” was clearly visible to audience members in the circle and stalls. On another occasion he hosted a party with carefully selected guests. As the evening progressed it became apparent to all in attendance that every single guest had the word ”bottom” in their surname.

But without doubt, his most shocking prank was one that he repeated on numerous occasions. He would wander along a busy street with a cow’s udder protruding from the fly of his trousers. When confronted, he would apologise profusely, whip out a pair of scissors and cut-off the offending appendage. The reaction of those who witnessed this apparent act of self-mutilation has sadly been lost to history.

Horace de Vere Cole was twice married and died of a heart attack in 1936, aged just 54. His sister was the wife of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who once said of his brother-in-law “I think he must be a little mad”. Quite!

Sources:

https://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_de_Vere_Cole

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/04/20/Horace-de-vere-Cole/