Horace de Vere Cole
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William Horace de Vere Cole (5 May 1881 – 25 February 1936) was an eccentric prankster born in
Ballincollig Ballincollig () is a suburban town within the administrative area of Cork city in Ireland. It is located on the western side of Cork city, beside the River Lee on the R608 regional road. In 2016 it was the largest town in County Cork, at whic ...
, County Cork, Ireland. His most famous prank was the ''Dreadnought'' hoax where he and several others in
blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
, pretending to be an Abyssinian prince and his entourage, were given a tour of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
ship HMS ''Dreadnought''.


Family background and early life

Cole was the son of
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer William Utting Cole, a major in the
3rd Dragoon Guards The 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1751 and the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) ...
who died of
cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
in India when his son was a child. His mother, Mary de Vere, was niece and heiress of politician Sir Stephen de Vere, 4th Baronet. Cole was a great-nephew of the Anglo-Irish poet Aubrey de Vere. Horace's paternal grandfather had made his fortune dealing in
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg cr ...
, while his mother's family claimed kinship with the de Vere
Earls of Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half centuries, until the death of the 20th Earl in 170 ...
and the right to the position of
Lord Great Chamberlain The Lord Great Chamberlain of England is the sixth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Privy Seal, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and above the Lord High Constable of England, Lord Hi ...
of England. A bout of
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
at the age of ten seriously affected his hearing for the remainder of his life. A few years later, he was sent as a boarder to
Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
. During the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
, Cole was commissioned as a lieutenant in the
Yorkshire Hussars The Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own) was an auxiliary unit of the British Army formed in 1794. The regiment was formed as volunteer cavalry (Yeomanry) in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars and served in the Second Boe ...
, in which he quickly rose to the rank of acting captain. He was wounded by a
dumdum bullet Expanding bullets, also known colloquially as dumdum bullets, are projectiles designed to expand on impact. This causes the bullet to increase in diameter, to combat over-penetration and produce a larger wound, thus dealing more damage to a li ...
on 2 July 1900 and recuperated from shrapnel wounds at the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
hospital in
Kroonstad Kroonstad (Afrikaans directly translated "Crown City") is the third largest city in the Free State (after Bloemfontein and Welkom) and lies two hours' drive on the N1 from Gauteng. Maokeng is an area within Kroonstad, and is occasionally used ...
until September that year. He was subsequently invalided out of the army, donating the £1800 he received from cashing in his disability pension to the fund for war widows and orphans. On his return to England, he went up to
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, in 1902, although he did not complete his degree. When his paternal grandmother, Jane, died in 1906 Cole inherited, ''inter alia'',
West Woodhay House West Woodhay House is a Grade I listed building in the parish of West Woodhay, West Berkshire, UK. History and description The house was erected in 1635 and is attributed to Inigo Jones, although it is likely to have been designed and built by E ...
in the parish of
West Woodhay West Woodhay () is a rural scattered village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. At the 2011 census it had 59 households. Geography The area is more elevated compared to the rest of the county of Berkshire and the district. It is und ...
in southern Berkshire. He was unable to afford the upkeep and in 1912 sold the property to his uncle,
Alfred Clayton Cole Alfred Clayton Cole (17 December 18545 June 1920) was a City of London merchant and director of the Bank of England, serving as Governor of the Bank of England from 1911 to 1913. Early life and background The younger son of William Henry Cole, ...
, who later became
Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...
.


Pranks

As an undergraduate at Cambridge, Cole posed as the uncle of the Sultan of Zanzibar—who was visiting London at the time—to make a ceremonial visit to his own college, accompanied by his friend
Adrian Stephen Adrian Leslie Stephen (27 October 1883 – 3 May 1948) was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, an author and psychoanalyst, and the younger brother of Thoby Stephen, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He and his wife Karin Stephen became interest ...
(the brother of
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
). Cole's best-known trick was the ''Dreadnought'' hoax on 7 February 1910, when he fooled the captain of the Royal Navy warship HMS ''Dreadnought'' into taking him and a group of his friends in blackface, including Virginia Woolf, for an official Abyssinian delegation. On occasion, Cole would wander the streets with a cow's
teat A teat is the projection from the mammary glands of mammals from which milk flows or is ejected for the purpose of feeding young. In many mammals the teat projects from the udder. The number of teats varies by mammalian species and often corre ...
poking through the open
fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...
of his trousers; once he judged he had caused optimum outrage he would cut off the offending protrusion with a pair of scissors. On honeymoon with his first wife in Italy, on
April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
1919, Cole dropped horse manure onto
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
's
Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...
—a city with no horses that could be reached only by boat. Spending most of his later life in London, Cole executed a series of bold jokes and escapades principally aimed at deflating pompous figures of authority. His targets included
members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, city businessmen, and naval officers. On one occasion, he directed a group of like-minded friends dressed as workmen as they dug a trench across
Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
. On another, he challenged an old schoolfriend from Eton, the newly elected Conservative
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
Oliver Locker-Lampson Commander Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson, CMG, DSO (25 September 1880 (Belgravia, London) – 8 October 1954 (Kensington, London)) was a British politician and naval reserve officer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ramsey, Huntingdon ...
, to race him on a London street to the nearest corner, giving him a 10-yard head start. Cole had already slipped his gold watch into his friend’s pocket, and with Locker-Lampson running ahead at full speed Cole waited till they were passing a policeman and began to yell "Stop thief!" Locker-Lampson was promptly arrested and the watch found. After savouring the moment, Cole explained that it was all a joke, and both men were told to go on their way. Unfortunately, Cole then began waving his stick in a dangerous manner, as though conducting an imaginary band, and both men were arrested and taken into custody. No charge was brought against Locker-Lampson, but Cole was found guilty of a
breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...
and fined £5. According to legend, Cole once hosted a party at which the guests discovered that they all had the word "bottom" in their surnames. According to another story he bought tickets for particular seats at a theatrical performance he considered pretentious and distributed them to eight bald men whose heads, painted with a single letter, spelled out the word " B-O-L-L-O-C-K-S" (another source claims it was four men's heads making the word F-U-C-K), which was legible from the circle and boxes above. Another variation of the story is that the men's heads were bald, and when the light hit their heads, it would spell out F-U-C-K. With his mane of hair and bristling moustache, in the 1920s Cole was sometimes mistaken for the
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
prime minister
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
, causing dismay when Cole launched into a fierce public attack on Labour. His sister
Annie Annie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress * Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer The ...
married the future Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
, who was asked by Annie what he thought of Cole, and later commented "I was obliged to say what I did think, but fortunately it appeared that was her opinion too and she was not at all inclined to be proud of her brother's exploit... I think he must be a little mad." Cole has also been suspected of the
Piltdown Man The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...
hoax.


Personal life

In 1918, Cole fell in love with the eighteen-year-old Irish heiress Denise Lynch. Owing to the fortune she stood to inherit, she was a
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of the
Irish Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...
and prevented from marrying until the age of 21. Lynch was eventually released from the wardship and married Cole on 30September 1918 in Dublin. She subsequently gave birth to a daughter, Valerie, but the marriage failed in 1928 and he went into voluntary exile in France, after losing all his money in Canadian land speculation. In 1931, he married a former
scullery maid In great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female domestic servants and acted as assistant to a kitchen maid. Description The scullery maid reported (through the kitchen maid) to the cook or chef. Along ...
and waitress at the
Veeraswamy Veeraswamy is an Indian restaurant in London, located at 99-101 Regent Street. It was opened in 1926 by Edward Palmer, an Anglo-Indian retired British Indian Army officer, the grandson of an English general and an Indian princess. It is the old ...
Indian restaurant, Mabel Winifred Mary Wright (later Mavis Wheeler, 1908–1970) who in 1935 gave birth to a son,
Tristan de Vere Cole Tristan John de Vere Cole (born 16 March 1935) is an English television director, now retired. In his first career, he was a Royal Navy Officer for seven years. Life Cole is believed to be the last-surviving illegitimate son of the painter August ...
, who was the natural son of the artist
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 ...
. Cole died of a heart attack in
Honfleur Honfleur () is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. The people that inhabit Honf ...
, France, the following year and was buried at West Woodhay. Mabel later married the archaeologist
Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...
, who afterwards divorced her on the grounds of her adultery with Lord Vivian.


See also

*
Hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
*
List of hoaxes The following is a list of hoaxes: Proven hoaxes These are some claims that have been revealed or proven definitively to be deliberate public hoaxes. This list does not include hoax articles published on or around April 1, a long list of which c ...


References

;Notes ;Sources * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Horace de Vere 1881 births 1936 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Hoaxers Hoaxes in the United Kingdom Dreadnought hoax People from County Cork Yorkshire Hussars officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Military personnel from County Cork Lists of practical jokes