Harry Douglas Clark Pepler (1878–1951), known as Hilary Pepler, was an English printer, writer and poet. He was an associate of both

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

and G. K. Chesterton, working on publications in which they had an interest. He was also a founder with Gill and

Desmond Chute Desmond Macready Chute (1895–1962) was an English poet and artist, who became a Catholic priest in 1927. Early life He was born in Bristol, the son of James Macready Chute (1856–1912) and his wife Abigail Philomena Henessy (1855&nda ...

in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at

Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling. ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, called

The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic was a Roman Catholic community of artists and craftspeople founded in 1920 in Ditchling, East Sussex, England. It was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and its legacy led to the creation of Ditchling ...

Life

His background was

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

. He was born at

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

and educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school ...

. In the early 1900s, Pepler moved to

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, London with his wife Clare Whiteman. Pepler became deeply involved in the aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the politics of

Fabianism The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fab ...

. He became friends with

Edward Johnston Edward Johnston, CBE (11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944) was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool. He is most famo ...

and, during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, met Eric Gill through the Hampshire House Workshops. At that time, Pepler was a social worker for the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

, and organised the first London

school meals A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...

service. Pepler and Gill were together mostly responsible for the Ditchling house magazine, ''The Game''. In 1915, Pepler moved to Ditchling, where Gill had set up a commune of religious artists and artisans. There, he founded St. Dominic's Press, with the intention of printing books “about crafts which machinery threatened with extinction.” It published, amongst other books, important editions for the Ulysses Bookshop in

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and Sou ...

, London, owned by Jacob Schwartz, to 1937. These included works of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

(in fact pirate editions), but also

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, John Drinkwater,

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

, Chesterton and John Collier. He became a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

convert in 1916; and joined the Dominicans as a lay member in 1918. At that time, he changed his name to Hilary. Financial quarrels between Pepler and Gill may have led to Gill leaving the Ditchling group in 1924. Pepler was forced to leave the Guild in 1934. After Chesterton's death in 1936, Pepler assisted Reginald Jebb, son-in-law of

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

, in running ''The Weekly Review'', the successor

distributist Distributism is an economic theory asserting that the world's productive assets should be widely owned rather than concentrated. Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, distributism was based upon Catholic social teaching princ ...

publication to ''

G. K.'s Weekly ''G.K.'s Weekly'' was a British publication founded in 1925 (with its pilot edition surfacing in late 1924) by writer G. K. Chesterton, continuing until his death in 1936. Its articles typically discussed topical cultural, political, and socio-e ...

''. Stephen Dorril's ''Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism'' (2006) mentions Pepler in passing, as a member of the British People's Party in 1945.

Family

He married Clare Whiteman in 1904; they had three sons and three daughters. His son David Pepler married Betty Gill, daughter of Eric Gill. Pepler's son, Fr.

Conrad Pepler Conrad (Stephen) Pepler O.P. (5 May 1908 – 10 November 1993) was an English Dominican priest, writer, editor, and publisher. He was the founding Warden of the first Roman Catholic conference centre in the UK, at Spode House, Staffordshi ...

, O.P., ran the Dominican conference centre at Spode House, Staffordshire, for many years, and founded Spode Music Week.

Works

*''The Care Committee. The Child & the Parent'' (1914)
''The Devil's Devices or, Control versus Service''
with woodcuts by

(1915) *''Three Poems'' (St. Dominic's Press, 1918) *''Nisi Dominus'' (1919) *''Concerning Dragons'' (St. Dominic's Press, 1921) *''The Law the Lawyers Know About'' (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923) *''The Service for the Burial of the Dead according to the use of the Orthodox Greek Church in London. The Greek Text with a rendering in English'' (1922) *''In Petra. Being a Sequel to "Nisi Dominus"'' (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923) *''Libellus lapidum'' (1924) with David Jones *''Judas or the betrayal: a play in one act'' (St. Dominic's Press 1926) *''Pilate - A Passion Play'' (St Dominic's Press, 1928) *''Plays For Puppets'' (St. Dominic's Press, 1929) *''A Nativity Play: The Three Wise Men'' (1929) *''Le Boeuf et L'Ane et deux autres pieces pour marionettes'' (St. Dominic's Press 1930) *''St. George and the Dragon: A One Act Play'' (1932) *''Mimes Sacred & Profane'' (St. Dominic's Press, 1932) *''The Hand Press: An Essay Written and Printed by Hand for the Society of Typographic Arts, Chicago'' (1934) *''The Field Is Won'' (1935) play *''The Four Minstrels of Bremen and "The Two Robbers", being more Plays for Puppets'' (St. Dominic's Press) *''A Letter About Eric Gill'' (1950)

References

External links

Biography of Pepler on Guild website

Ditchling Museum
*

', much-anthologised poem

*
''IHS Press'' page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepler, Hilary Douglas Clark 1878 births 1951 deaths People educated at Bootham School Converts to Roman Catholicism from Quakerism English Roman Catholics English Dominicans English male poets Distributism