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| Oak Eggar Moth Lasiocampa quercus It will become obvious on reading this article why a photograph of this species is an appropriate one to remember the subject From Wikipedia ©Entomart |
While William Rowan was looking for a way to make a zoological living he worked a schoolmaster, latterly for a school year at Bedales in 1918-19.
Marianne Ainley in her biography wrote that Rowan arrived at Bedales School in Hampshire on 19 September 1918. She found in Rowan’s notes an account of the tragic death of a boy at the school:
…He liked all his colleagues and many of his pupils. He felt a special affinity for Woolacott, one of the big boys, a clever, reserved lad, keen on natural history, who had already published notes in the Entomologist. The two spent much time together, and from their discussions Rowan found the boy was practically a misogynist. This, he noted, "seems unnatural and calls for a deeper explanation.” Because of his busy schedule, however, Rowan had to postpone investigating the causes of the boy's attitude. Understandably, Rowan was distressed when, a few weeks later, Woolacott informed him he would probably be expelled. Rowan promptly arranged to see the headmaster [John Haden Badley who had, with his wife, founded the school] to intercede on Woolacott's behalf, but was too late. Woolacott shot himself that afternoon. Rowan blamed himself for not getting to the root of the boy's problem, and was most deeply touched to find that Woolacott had left a pile of beautifully made entomological slides, representing many hours of careful work, on Rowan’s desk.
Who was this budding entomologist, Woolacott? And what did reports of his death have to say?
First though it is worth pointing out that Bedales was a rare example at the time of a co-educational secondary school and I take it that the ‘misogyny’ on the part of Woolacott, was related to the presence of female pupils at the school and, perhaps, somewhat of a tradition of the boys who had objected to the presence of girls when they first appeared on the scene some years earlier.
It must also be borne in mind that the tragedy occurred on 4 November 1918, only six weeks after Rowan’s arrival. He had clearly got to know the boy’s interest in the natural world but had not had time to understand much of Woolacott’s past.
The Hampshire Telegraph of Friday 8 November had a short account of the coroner’s inquest held the day before.
STUDENT OF 17 SHOT DEAD.
A shocking tragedy occurred at Bedales School, Petersfield, on Monday afternoon, when a student named Harold Kingsley Woolacott, aged 17, was found dead in a dormitory with a bullet wound in his temple.
It appears that the deceased lad was about to leave the school, and on going to pack up his clothes we given a small rifle, which the Matron had been keeping for him for about two years. Shortly afterwards he was found as described with the rifle at his feet. Dr. Brownfield was summoned, but could only pronounce life extinct.
At an inquest yesterday afternoon a verdict of "Suicide whilst temporary insane" was returned...
The school magazine, the Bedales Record for 1918-19 also had an account:
The term was saddened by the death of Woolacott, as told on a later page. He was buried in Steep Churchyard, where now lie several of our boys, the coffin being carried by his fellow prefects and followed by his schoolfellows.
H. K. Woolacott joined the School in 1916 at a later age than most. He was a quiet introspective boy, given to melancholy moods, which were deepened by the absence of his parents in India and by the war. He would normally have left the School last Summer to begin his military service, but asked to stay on another term in order to be a prefect and try to do more for the School than he had done. But he did not prove strong enough to be in so responsible a position, and at the beginning of November it was decided, with his own concurrence, that he should leave then and begin his training at once. While packing his things, amongst them a miniature rifle which, like many others, he had brought here for practice on the range, and for which, unknown to us, he had some cartridges of his own, he must, in a moment's impulse, have shot himself through the head; when found, a few moments later, he was past all help. At the inquest neither the evidence nor his own diary could throw any light upon the motive, other than the boy's strange nature and his sense of failure at School, and no kind of blame was felt to attach to anyone else.
I would suggest that Rowan’s more succinct explanation for Woolacott’s departure from the school is the correct interpretation; he was being expelled and thus required to join the army seven days, as it happened, before the Armistice of 11 January.
Harold Kingsley Woolacott had indeed had notes published in The Entomologist. I have found two, both in the January 1918 edition.
In the early decades of the 20th century amateur entomology and especially lepidoptery was in its heyday.
Lasiocampa quercus is the Oak Eggar Moth. Melitaea aurinia, the Marsh Fritillary Butterffly, is now Euphydryas aurinia. Phragmatobia fuliginosa is the Ruby Tiger moth. Macrothylacia rubi is the Fox Moth. Manulea lurideola is the Common Footman Moth
As mentioned by the report in the school magazine Harold Woolacott’s parents were in India. He was born in Brixton, London in 1901 to John Evans Woolacott and his second wife, Angiolina Maria Emily Seneca. John Evans Woolacott (1861-1936) is described on his Wikpedia page as journalist, newspaper editor and political activist who worked first in London for the Central News Agency as lobby correspondent and then in Ireland, Morocco and Egypt. in 1895 he stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament as a member of the Independent Labour Party in the Rollox Division of Glasgow. During the 1890s he worked on The Democrat and was assistant editor of the Weekly Dispatch. His first wife died and he married Angiolina Seneca in 1897; he was 34 and she was 21. By 1903 he was assistant editor of The Economist. In 1908 he was elected president of the Institute of Journalists but then left for India where he was assistant editor of The Statesman in Calcutta. 1913 saw him as editor of the Bombay Gazette. That publication soon closed and he returned to UK. He swapped political allegiance being adopted as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party but because of the outbreak of war no general election was held. Woolacott returned to India in 1916 (the year his son was sent to Bedales) working for The Pioneer in Allahabad and as a correspondent for The Times of London. By the time he had returned to UK in 1925 his politics had changed again, writing books opposed to political change in India. In 1929 he was appointed editor of The Bioscope, a weekly magazine devoted to the cinema. John Evans Wollacott died in Surrey in 1936.
Harold Woolacott’s mother, Angiolina, was the daughter of Alfonso and Eliza Seneca. Alfonso Seneca was Italian, a professional singer who appears in the local London newspapers of 1877 and 1878 performing regularly and frequently in concerts. Alfonso died in 1880. As far as I can see from the records John and Angiolina had no other children. Angiolina died in Surrey in 1934.
I have been able to find nothing else about the unhappy and clearly disturbed Harold Kinglsey Woolacott. I do not know if he ever accompanied his parents to India. It is clear that he entered Bedales when his parents left UK for the second time but where had he been educated until then? It was the norm for children of parents in India to either send or leave their children in UK when they were seven. The only clue as to young Woolacott’s location at any time is the address given in one of the articles in The Entomologist; in the summer of 1917 he was in St Merryn in Cornwall.
I have found a family tree online which includes a brother and sisters of John Evans Woolacott but not including John Evans himself. I do not know if Harold would have been in touch with members of his extended family while his parents were in India.
Harold Kingsley Woolacott’s tombstone can be found in the graveyard of All Saints in the village of Steep, near Petersfield. Reading his notes to The Entomologist I suspect the budding entomologist was a young scientist in the making. I can see why William Rowan, fondly remembered for his teaching and encouragement of birdwatching and photography in the school, was so upset by Woolacott’s utterly tragic death 106 years ago today.
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| Gravestone of Harold Kingsley Woolacott from findagrave.com |
Ainley MG. 1993. Restless Energy. A Biography of William Rowan 1891-1957. Montreal: Véhicule Press.
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