Horace De Vere Cole was a layabout prankster who was born with a mouth that was, frankly, stuffed with silver spoons.

The "blacked up" Dreadnought Hoaxers - De Vere Cole wears the moustache and Tophat, and stands centre

De Vere Cole’s social strata spanned from Lady Gergory and WB Yeats to Neville Chamberlain, to Virginia Woolf, from George Bernard Shaw to the painter and poet Augustus John to the Board of the Bank of England. His uncle on the maternal side, Aubrey De Vere, was a well-known poet and a family friend of the Wilde family. Horace schooled with Lawrence Oates, long before he had cause to say, “I am just going outside and may be some time.” De Vere Cole floated around the fringes of the Bloomsbury set. He knew, and shocked, Sir Hugh Lane while they were both in Paris.

In essence, he was one of the most socially connected men in late Victorian, and later on in Edwardian Britain. His family were on the one side naturalised Irish aristocracy – titled and cultured – and on the other side wealthy – also with land but also considerable means as a result of his grandfather William Henry Cole’s global trade in quinine.

De Vere Cole was born in Blarney Castle, County Cork in 1881. He grew up disaffected, with little impetus or inclination towards anything productive or destructive. But then the Boer War kicked off, and in so doing offered him opportunities. He could make his name and have the time of his life, emulating his adventurer heroes and his deceased military father. He left Eton without completing his exclusive education.

Horace De Vere Cole’s stay in South Africa was brief. He was wounded and invalided home where he got himself accepted into Cambridge and began a life of attention-seeking mischief making, financial mismanagement and ultimately anguished failure.

Among his ill-fated ventures was his inheritance of the vast West Woodhay estate in England which he sold to his uncle for a large stipend. He saw diminishing returns after investing this money frivolously.

Temporarily freed from the normal worries of money, food and shelter he embarked on a European tour and ended it with stealing the young bride from an impoverished Italian nobleman, Count Paso Pasolini. The couple fled, pursued by the hapless aristcrat. Eventually De Vere Cole and Contessa Pasolini (née Mildred Montague, the daughter of an American railroad magnate) found themselves holed up in County Wicklow, in a house that would go on to shield figures such as Michael Jackson and Hermann Goertz from public scrutiny.

Ultimately, De Vere Cole lost Contessa Pasolini due to her father’s wranglings. Seeking distraction he embarked on what would become his legacy – public pranks. His masterpiece was the Dreadnought Hoax.

HMS Dreadnought - the ship all the fuss was about

Known For

The Dreadnought Hoax caused uproar and furore in pre-First World War Britain. In some corners De Vere Cole and the other hoaxers were pariahs, in others they were heroes challenging the existing power structures and questioning Britain’s militarism.

USS George Washington - something like today's equivalent of HMS Dreadnought

So what did De Vere Cole do that caused such consternation?

He and his friends brazenly “blacked-up” and telegrammed the British Navy to expect an offical delegation from Zanzibar, who were recently declared allies of Britain after a long and protracted war.

They appeared later that same day and were shown around the Navy’s newest, most deadly ship – HMS Dreadnought. The ship was so vast and powerful, a new type of battleship was created eponymously; soon dreadnoughts would face German seapower.

The prank took place at time when there was huge public debate on the need for the vast spending of the military on these great engines of war. People were living in horrendous conditions, situations which went unaddressed while vast funds were poured into the defense budget.

The prank was the equivalent of some Joe Soap off the street wrangling his way into Area 51, in the middle of a recession. It was the fact that it was exactly this level of audacity that enabled the hoaxers to pull it off.

De Vere Cole told the Daily Mail and other newspapers. It was only at this point that the ruse come to light within the Admiralty. The old boys were red-faced and furious. A hastily convened party tracked down De Vere Cole and caned him on the arse, in what must be a great example of why the Navy made such a great target. The officer class and its various levels in the corridors of power were hopelessly out of touch, like a bunch of dossing boarders at a prestigious boys’ school.

Follow-up

De Vere Cole found a suitably prominent follow-up opportunity hard to come by. He entertained himself with minor pranks.One of his favourites he would perform in central London. Posing as a surveyor he would hold a measured line. Looking for assistance from passersby he would choose a victim. They would be left holding one end while he turned a corner “to take measurements”. He would perform the same act on the other side. This left two innocents holding the line while De Vere Cole slipped away.

Death

Horace De Vere Cole died penniless in Paris. By this stage he was largely fogotten in his self-imposed exile.

His Inheritance

Horace De Vere Cole was wealthy, in the beginning at least. He was also a stickler for detail. He listed the contents of his inheritance before selling the lot to his uncle:

• 1 country house, larger than Sandringham
• 2,500 acres
• 5 Gardens (English, Italian, Dutch, Rose and Rock)
• 1 lake
• 1 Roman camp
• 4 chalk pits
• 9 woods
• 14 estate homes
• 1 rectory
• 1 church
• 1 school
• 1 school mistress’ house
• 1 village clubhouse
• 1 steward’s house and home, farm and buildings
• 1 laundry
• 5 farms and buildings
• 1 omnibus
• 1 shooting cart
• 2 shut & 2 open carriages
• 1 pony carriage
• 1 jaunting car
• 2 motor cars
• …many horses

After compiling this list, he promptly crashed one of the 2 motor cars.

Bibliography
Wikipedia entry for Horace De Vere Cole
The Sultan of Zanzibar, Martyn Downer, Black Spring Press, 2010

Original content created by: The Inquisition

There was little in the outward appearance of nineteenth century German young men that could more clearly mark someone out as a man of distinction than an angry gash across the face. A schmiss translates as a strike or mark.

Otto Skorzeny - a filthy Nazi, but owner of a great scar

The Tough College Years

…the wearer was a gentleman of distinction with a military bearing. He was obviously a member of a social elite, part of the officer class…

The complex gaggle of states that made up Germany at the time was a tumultuous and fractious union. The nascent and short-lived empire had a difficult, at times even incendiary and violent, birth. States bristled with antipathy toward their neighbours. The militaristic predisposition of the populace was particularly evident to contemporary visitors in the faces of the better-heeled males. Young men of the social, aristocratic and economic elites were sent off to college and expected to return with (in ascending order of merit) an adequate education and at least one big scar.

Ostensibly, these scars were the result of over-enthusiastic, but legitimate, fencing practice. More regularly however, it was itself the desired result of extra-curricular displays of bravura and machismo – dueling.

Why Have them

The scars were a social signifier. They were a mark of honour and class, showing the wearer was a gentleman of distinction with a military bearing. He was obviously a member of a social elite, part of the officer class. He was an honourable member of the gentry.
The scars were signs of certain personal qualities. The wearer wouldn’t back down, instead standing firm and resolute; the normal macho bluster. The young men’s obsequiousness in following this fashion made them perfect subjects for a regime looking for cannon fodder – they were compliant and would follow even the worst example unerringly.

In fact, the scars were so sought after, they were often exacerbated. The recipient stuffed the wound with irritants such as horse hair to worsen the scarring. There are even stories of young men having their faces cut by accomplices, or even willing doctors. The scars, usually on the wearer’s left cheek, were not always restricted to one. Many young men had several.

Fencing

Fencing in Germany used heavy swords unlike the modern rapiers and foils. It was a ritualised process, a formal exchange of blow and riposte. In the end, the loser stood and took the blow. Strangely, this acceptance was itself seen as a victory of sorts.

Die Proklamation des Deutschen Kaiserreiches by Anton von Werner (1877), depicting the proclamation of the foundation of the German Reich (18 January 1871, Palace of Versailles). Pomp, bombast and unrestrained virility as seen in the image of the proclamation of the short lived empire.

Social Sanction

The scars were approved by the patriarchal society. The ruling elite, Bismarck included, had a fondness for the marks which many of them had received in their own youth. Eventually, Germany bowed to the inevitable and banned what was seen increasingly as a barbaric practice. The ban came into force just before the Great War.

The practice was briefly de-criminalised by the Nazis. It was propaganda, allowing them to look back on a glorious time in the past that never truly existed – a time when men were fearless and strong, when Germany was an imperial force, when Bismarck was at the helm and the future was bright.

A Distinguished Example

Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer in the Waffen-SS (that was his picture you saw up the top of the page). While a student in Austria, and while the practice was banned at home in Germany, he received the mark. As was expected of someone in his position he was a nasty, harsh piece of work. He led the mission to free Mussolini when was captured by his Italian opponents. He later led false-flag incursions into allied-held areas during the Battle of the Bulge, although it must be imagined that he stood out with his fractured visage. Otto Skorzeny had a long and storied life, eventually escaping to MAdrid. He died in 1975 having been involved in ODESSA.

The Irish Connection

Have you read about the Nazi spy in Ireland? Or the Swastika Laundry? Well, Otto Skorzeny also had Irish links. The Nazi was made welcome by the much pilloried, political chameleon Charles Haughey, a man of less than scrupulous morals. The Telegraph enjoyed loudly trumpeting, years later, how Irish society had thrown out the red carpet for Hitler’s thugs.

Bibliography
Otto Skorzeny
German Scarfaces
The omniscient Wikipedia on Dueling Scars
Otto Skorzeny in action
Nineteenth Century Germany

Original content created by: The Inquisition