C. R. M. F. Cruttwell
Encyclopedia
Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser Cruttwell (23 May 1887 – 14 March 1941) was a British historian and academic who served as dean and later principal of Hertford College, Oxford
. His field of expertise was modern European history, his most notable work being A History of the Great War, 1914–18. He is mainly remembered, however, for the vendetta pursued against him by the novelist Evelyn Waugh
, in which Waugh showed his distaste for his former tutor by repeatedly using the name "Cruttwell" in his early novels and stories to depict a sequence of unsavoury or ridiculous characters. The prolonged minor humiliation thus inflicted may have contributed to Cruttwell's eventual mental breakdown.
After gaining first-class honours at The Queen's College, Oxford
, Cruttwell was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1911, and the following year became a lecturer in history at Hertford College. His academic career was interrupted by war service during which he suffered severe wounds; after his return to Oxford in 1919 he became dean of Hertford, and in 1930, principal of the college. It was during his tenure as dean that the feud with Waugh developed while the latter was a history scholar at Hertford, in 1922–24. This hostility was pursued on Waugh's part until shortly before Cruttwell's death.
Cruttwell's term as Hertford's principal saw the production of his most important scholarly works, including his war history which earned him the degree of DLitt
. Beyond his college and academic duties Cruttwell held various administrative offices within the university, and was a member of its Hebdomadal Council
, or ruling body. In private life Cruttwell served as a Justice of the Peace
in Hampshire, where he had a country home, and stood unsuccessfully for the university's parliamentary seat
in the 1935 general election, representing the Conservative party
. Ill-health, aggravated by his war injuries, caused his retirement from the Hertford principalship in 1939. A mental collapse led to his committal to an institution, where he died two years later.
, the eldest of three sons of the Rev. Charles Thomas Cruttwell, rector of St Mary's Church. The elder Cruttwell was a scholar and historian of Roman literature; his wife Annie, née Mowbray, was the daughter of Sir John Mowbray
, who served as Conservative member of parliament
for Durham from 1853 to 1868, and for one of the two Oxford University parliamentary seats
from 1868 to 1899. The young Cruttwell was educated at Rugby School
, where in 1906 he won a scholarship to The Queen's College, Oxford, to read classics and history. At Queen's, Cruttwell enjoyed considerable academic success, including a first class honours degree
in modern history. In 1911 he was elected to a fellowship at All Souls College, and a year later was appointed to a history lectureship at Hertford College.
On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Cruttwell enlisted in the Royal Berkshire regiment
and was commissioned as second lieutenant
. He fought in France and Belgium, until a severe leg wound in 1916 ended his frontline military service. Apart from its physical effects, Cruttwell's experience in the trenches seemingly inflicted permanent psychological damage on his personality, replacing the general good manners of his youth with a short-tempered, impatient and bullying character. Evelyn Waugh wrote later that "It was as though he had never cleansed himself from the muck of the trenches". In the latter part of the war Cruttwell was employed in the military intelligence department at the War Office
in London, before returning to Oxford in 1919. In 1922 he published a short history of his regiment's wartime exploits.
, responsible for general discipline within the college; he held this post for five years. He also became active in the administration of Oxford University, and was elected to its ruling body, the Hebdomadal Council
. He served as a university statutory commissioner, and was one of several academics nominated by the vice-chancellor
as delegates to the Oxford University Press
.
Cruttwell's administrative competence was recognised in 1930, when he was elected principal of Hertford College. In this office he helped to establish the university's geography school, and arranged that the first Oxford professorship in geography was based at Hertford. During his tenure as principal he completed his most significant academic works, including his Great War history (1934) which earned him the Oxford degree of DLitt
. In 1936 Cruttwell delivered the Lees-Knowles lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge
, under the title "The Role of British Strategy in the Great War". Also in 1936 he published a biography of the Duke of Wellington
, and in 1937 he produced his final major academic work, A History of Peaceful Change in the Modern World. An attempt in 1935 to emulate his grandfather and become one of the university's members of parliament was thwarted when, as a Conservative candidate in the general election of 1935, Cruttwell was defeated. An Independent, A. P. Herbert
, beat him on the third ballot in a single transferable vote
system. This was the first time since the 1860s that a Conservative had failed to hold either of the two university seats, a humiliation noted with relish by Evelyn Waugh. According to The Times
, Cruttwell had underestimated the nature and determination of the opposition, and had taken his election as a Conservative for granted. Because he polled less than one-eighth of the first ballot votes, Cruttwell lost his deposit
.
." The first recorded clash between them came early in Waugh's first term; in a letter to his schoolfriend Dudley Carew
, Waugh reports that his tutor verbally abused him for a Latin mistranslation with the words "Damn you, you're a scholar!". The main basis for the rift that rapidly developed was Waugh's increasingly casual attitude towards his scholarship. Whereas Cruttwell saw the scholarship as a commitment to hard and devoted study, Waugh considered it a reward for his successful school studies and a passport to a life of pleasure. Waugh soon involved himself in a range of university activities—the Oxford Union
, the Hertford debating society, journalism and drawings for the undergraduate papers Isis
and Cherwell
, and a hectic social life. In his third term Waugh was brusquely advised by Cruttwell that he should take his studies more seriously, a warning which Waugh chose to interpret as an insult. "I think it was from then on that our mutual dislike became incurable", he later wrote.
During his remaining time at Hertford, Waugh missed few opportunities to ridicule the dean. He did this in numerous unsigned contributions to Isis; these included an article in March 1924, in the "Isis Idols" series. Here, according to Waugh's biographer Martin Stannard, the mockery was cleverly disguised as a paean of praise, arranged around an unflattering photograph of Cruttwell displaying "bad teeth within an unfortunate smile". In Cherwell, in August 1923, Waugh published a short story, "Edward of Unique Achievement", in which the protagonist, a history student at an Oxford college, murders his tutor, "Mr Curtis" (who is, among other things, revealed to be a sexual deviant). Waugh and an accomplice spread a rumour that Cruttwell favoured sex with animals; they bought a stuffed dog which they placed in the college quadrangle, and began the practice of barking under the dean's window. Cruttwell made no apparent response to these provocations other than a dismissive reference to Waugh as "a silly suburban sod with an inferiority complex".
Waugh left Hertford in the summer of 1924 with a third class degree
and a brief note from Cruttwell expressing disappointment with this performance. Although the pair never met again, a few years later Cruttwell spoke disparagingly of Waugh to the latter's prospective mother-in-law, Lady Burghclere, describing him as vice-ridden and "living off vodka and absinthe". Once Waugh had established himself as a writer he resumed the vendetta against his former tutor by introducing a succession of unsavoury or ridiculous characters called "Cruttwell" into his novels and stories. Thus, in Decline and Fall
(1928) "Toby Cruttwell" is a psychopathic burglar; in Vile Bodies
(1930) the name belongs to a snobbish Conservative MP. In Black Mischief
(1932) "Cruttwell" is a social parasite, and he becomes a dubious "bone-setter" in A Handful of Dust
(1934). In Scoop
(1938), "General Cruttwell" is a salesman with a fake tropical tan at the Army & Navy Stores. The 1935 short story "Mr Loveday's Little Outing", which recounts the grisly deeds of an escaped homicidal maniac, was originally published as "Mr Cruttwell's Little Outing". The final Cruttwell reference in Waugh's fiction came in 1939, in the short story "An Englishman's Home", in the form of an embezzling Wolf Cub
master. In 1935, in an additional gesture of sarcastic ridicule, Waugh told a survey in which modern novelists were asked to nominate their best work that his choice was as yet unwritten: "It is the memorial biography of C.R.M.F. Cruttwell, some time Dean of Hertford College, Oxford, and my old history tutor. It is a labour of love to one to whom, under God, I owe everything". As with Waugh's student tauntings, there is no record of any reaction from Cruttwell, although according to Stannard he anticipated each new Waugh novel with much trepidation about how he might be portrayed.
in Hampshire
, where he was active in the local community and served as a Justice of the Peace
. Since the war, however, his health had suffered from the effects of his wounds, and he was subject to recurrent rheumatic fever
. In 1939 his poor physical condition led to his early retirement from the Hertford principalship. This was followed by a period of mental illness, possibly exacerbated by the continuing mockery from Waugh. Eventually he was confined to a mental hospital, the Burden Institute at Stapleton
, near Bristol
, where he died on 14 March 1941, aged 53. He left his book collection and a bequest of £1,000 to Hertford College, together with an oil portrait of him, painted in 1937 by his cousin, Grace Cruttwell. The probate value of his estate was £19,814.
. His professional standing is largely based on his Great War history, which biographer Geoffrey Ellis suggests is "most notable for its frank and fearless judgements on those identified as the principal actors (military, naval and political) in that tragic conflict". This work was widely admired at the time, and has undergone several reprints, but has also been criticised as lacking in humanity, displaying "almost no awareness of the appalling degree of suffering it chronicles". Ellis describes Cruttwell's textbooks on modern British and European history as "models of clarity and cogency". However, Cruttwell's professional reputation has been largely overshadowed by the attention given to his feud with Waugh, the true significance of which, Ellis believes, may have been somewhat exaggerated.
Cruttwell's relations with his colleagues and students have been the subject of contradictory reports. Evelyn Waugh's biographer Selena Hastings describes him as of "unprepossessing" appearance, "good-hearted but difficult", inclined to misogyny
, brusque and sometimes offensive towards his male colleagues. Waugh's own description is of someone "tall, almost loutish, with the face of a petulant baby", of indistinct speech, who "smoked a pipe which was attached to his blubber-lips by a thread of slime". However, Stannard records that Waugh's student contemporary Christopher Hollis
found nothing particularly remarkable about Cruttwell. "Like Waugh", says Stannard, "Cruttwell played up his eccentricities and had an uncharitable sense of humour". Ellis's 2004 biographical sketch suggests that much of Cruttwell's rebarbative manner may have been the result of simple shyness.
Although there clearly was a genuine mutual animosity between Cruttwell and Waugh, Hastings points out that Cruttwell had many occasions to suspend Waugh from the college, but did not do so. Ellis acknowledges a "forceful, forthright and eccentric character", but stresses Cruttwell's generous hospitality "to many who became his close friends", and a genuine concern for his undergraduates' welfare.
Hertford College, Oxford
Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. There are 612 students , plus various visiting...
. His field of expertise was modern European history, his most notable work being A History of the Great War, 1914–18. He is mainly remembered, however, for the vendetta pursued against him by the novelist Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, in which Waugh showed his distaste for his former tutor by repeatedly using the name "Cruttwell" in his early novels and stories to depict a sequence of unsavoury or ridiculous characters. The prolonged minor humiliation thus inflicted may have contributed to Cruttwell's eventual mental breakdown.
After gaining first-class honours at The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
, Cruttwell was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1911, and the following year became a lecturer in history at Hertford College. His academic career was interrupted by war service during which he suffered severe wounds; after his return to Oxford in 1919 he became dean of Hertford, and in 1930, principal of the college. It was during his tenure as dean that the feud with Waugh developed while the latter was a history scholar at Hertford, in 1922–24. This hostility was pursued on Waugh's part until shortly before Cruttwell's death.
Cruttwell's term as Hertford's principal saw the production of his most important scholarly works, including his war history which earned him the degree of DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
. Beyond his college and academic duties Cruttwell held various administrative offices within the university, and was a member of its Hebdomadal Council
Hebdomadal Council
The Hebdomadal Council was the chief executive body for the University of Oxford from its establishment in 1854 until its replacement, in the Michaelmas term of 2000, by the new University Council...
, or ruling body. In private life Cruttwell served as a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in Hampshire, where he had a country home, and stood unsuccessfully for the university's parliamentary seat
Oxford University (UK Parliament constituency)
Oxford University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Electoral System:...
in the 1935 general election, representing the Conservative party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. Ill-health, aggravated by his war injuries, caused his retirement from the Hertford principalship in 1939. A mental collapse led to his committal to an institution, where he died two years later.
Early life and career
Cruttwell was born on 23 May 1887, in the village of Denton, NorfolkDenton, Norfolk
Denton is a village in the county of Norfolk, England. As of 2001, it had a population of 352 inhabitants in 148 households.Located on the southern edge of the county, Denton has an area of . The nearest towns are Harleston and Bungay...
, the eldest of three sons of the Rev. Charles Thomas Cruttwell, rector of St Mary's Church. The elder Cruttwell was a scholar and historian of Roman literature; his wife Annie, née Mowbray, was the daughter of Sir John Mowbray
Sir John Mowbray, 1st Baronet
Sir John Robert Mowbray, 1st Baronet PC , known as John Cornish until 1847, was a British Conservative politician and long-serving Member of Parliament, eventually serving as Father of the House.-Biography:...
, who served as Conservative member of parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Durham from 1853 to 1868, and for one of the two Oxford University parliamentary seats
Oxford University (UK Parliament constituency)
Oxford University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Electoral System:...
from 1868 to 1899. The young Cruttwell was educated at Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
, where in 1906 he won a scholarship to The Queen's College, Oxford, to read classics and history. At Queen's, Cruttwell enjoyed considerable academic success, including a first class honours degree
British undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
in modern history. In 1911 he was elected to a fellowship at All Souls College, and a year later was appointed to a history lectureship at Hertford College.
On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Cruttwell enlisted in the Royal Berkshire regiment
Royal Berkshire Regiment
The Royal Berkshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 49th Regiment of Foot and the 66th Regiment of Foot.The regiment was originally formed as The Princess Charlotte of Wales's , taking the...
and was commissioned as second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
. He fought in France and Belgium, until a severe leg wound in 1916 ended his frontline military service. Apart from its physical effects, Cruttwell's experience in the trenches seemingly inflicted permanent psychological damage on his personality, replacing the general good manners of his youth with a short-tempered, impatient and bullying character. Evelyn Waugh wrote later that "It was as though he had never cleansed himself from the muck of the trenches". In the latter part of the war Cruttwell was employed in the military intelligence department at the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
in London, before returning to Oxford in 1919. In 1922 he published a short history of his regiment's wartime exploits.
Hertford College
On his return to Hertford College, Cruttwell was elected to a fellowship in modern history, and a year later was appointed Hertford's deanDean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
, responsible for general discipline within the college; he held this post for five years. He also became active in the administration of Oxford University, and was elected to its ruling body, the Hebdomadal Council
Hebdomadal Council
The Hebdomadal Council was the chief executive body for the University of Oxford from its establishment in 1854 until its replacement, in the Michaelmas term of 2000, by the new University Council...
. He served as a university statutory commissioner, and was one of several academics nominated by the vice-chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
as delegates to the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.
Cruttwell's administrative competence was recognised in 1930, when he was elected principal of Hertford College. In this office he helped to establish the university's geography school, and arranged that the first Oxford professorship in geography was based at Hertford. During his tenure as principal he completed his most significant academic works, including his Great War history (1934) which earned him the Oxford degree of DLitt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
. In 1936 Cruttwell delivered the Lees-Knowles lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, under the title "The Role of British Strategy in the Great War". Also in 1936 he published a biography of the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
, and in 1937 he produced his final major academic work, A History of Peaceful Change in the Modern World. An attempt in 1935 to emulate his grandfather and become one of the university's members of parliament was thwarted when, as a Conservative candidate in the general election of 1935, Cruttwell was defeated. An Independent, A. P. Herbert
A. P. Herbert
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, CH was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist...
, beat him on the third ballot in a single transferable vote
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...
system. This was the first time since the 1860s that a Conservative had failed to hold either of the two university seats, a humiliation noted with relish by Evelyn Waugh. According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Cruttwell had underestimated the nature and determination of the opposition, and had taken his election as a Conservative for granted. Because he polled less than one-eighth of the first ballot votes, Cruttwell lost his deposit
Deposit (politics)
A deposit is a sum of money that a candidate must pay in return for the right to stand for election to certain political offices, particularly seats in legislatures.-United Kingdom:...
.
Feud with Evelyn Waugh
Waugh joined Hertford College on a scholarship, in January 1922. He had received a congratulatory letter from Cruttwell welcoming him to the college and complimenting him on his English style: "about the best of any of the Candidates in the group". Despite this warmth, Waugh's initial impressions of his tutor were unfavourable—"not at all the kind of don for whom I had been prepared by stories of JowettBenjamin Jowett
Benjamin Jowett was renowned as an influential tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian and translator of Plato. He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford.-Early career:...
." The first recorded clash between them came early in Waugh's first term; in a letter to his schoolfriend Dudley Carew
Dudley Carew
Dudley Charles Carew was an English journalist, writer, poet and film critic. He was a special correspondent of The Times in the 1920s and 1930s, and reported on cricket matches for the paper. From 1945 until his retirement in 1963 he was the paper's film critic...
, Waugh reports that his tutor verbally abused him for a Latin mistranslation with the words "Damn you, you're a scholar!". The main basis for the rift that rapidly developed was Waugh's increasingly casual attitude towards his scholarship. Whereas Cruttwell saw the scholarship as a commitment to hard and devoted study, Waugh considered it a reward for his successful school studies and a passport to a life of pleasure. Waugh soon involved himself in a range of university activities—the Oxford Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
, the Hertford debating society, journalism and drawings for the undergraduate papers Isis
Isis magazine
The Isis Magazine was established at Oxford University in 1892 . Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, it was finally acquired by the latter's publishing house, OSPL, in the late 1990s...
and Cherwell
Cherwell (newspaper)
Cherwell is an independent newspaper, largely published for students of Oxford University. First published in 1920, it has had an online edition since 1996. Named after the local river, Cherwell is published by OSPL , who also publish the sister publication ISIS along with the Etcetera Supplement...
, and a hectic social life. In his third term Waugh was brusquely advised by Cruttwell that he should take his studies more seriously, a warning which Waugh chose to interpret as an insult. "I think it was from then on that our mutual dislike became incurable", he later wrote.
During his remaining time at Hertford, Waugh missed few opportunities to ridicule the dean. He did this in numerous unsigned contributions to Isis; these included an article in March 1924, in the "Isis Idols" series. Here, according to Waugh's biographer Martin Stannard, the mockery was cleverly disguised as a paean of praise, arranged around an unflattering photograph of Cruttwell displaying "bad teeth within an unfortunate smile". In Cherwell, in August 1923, Waugh published a short story, "Edward of Unique Achievement", in which the protagonist, a history student at an Oxford college, murders his tutor, "Mr Curtis" (who is, among other things, revealed to be a sexual deviant). Waugh and an accomplice spread a rumour that Cruttwell favoured sex with animals; they bought a stuffed dog which they placed in the college quadrangle, and began the practice of barking under the dean's window. Cruttwell made no apparent response to these provocations other than a dismissive reference to Waugh as "a silly suburban sod with an inferiority complex".
Waugh left Hertford in the summer of 1924 with a third class degree
British undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
and a brief note from Cruttwell expressing disappointment with this performance. Although the pair never met again, a few years later Cruttwell spoke disparagingly of Waugh to the latter's prospective mother-in-law, Lady Burghclere, describing him as vice-ridden and "living off vodka and absinthe". Once Waugh had established himself as a writer he resumed the vendetta against his former tutor by introducing a succession of unsavoury or ridiculous characters called "Cruttwell" into his novels and stories. Thus, in Decline and Fall
Decline and Fall
Decline and Fall is a novel by the English author Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1928. It was Waugh's first published novel; an earlier attempt, entitled The Temple at Thatch, was destroyed by Waugh while still in manuscript form. Decline and Fall is based in part on Waugh's undergraduate years...
(1928) "Toby Cruttwell" is a psychopathic burglar; in Vile Bodies
Vile Bodies
Vile Bodies is a 1930 novel by Evelyn Waugh satirising the Bright Young People: decadent young London society between World War I and World War II.-Title:The title comes from the Epistle to the Philippians 3:21...
(1930) the name belongs to a snobbish Conservative MP. In Black Mischief
Black Mischief
Black Mischief was Evelyn Waugh's third novel, published in 1932. The novel chronicles the efforts of the English-educated Emperor Seth, assisted by a fellow Oxford graduate, Basil Seal, to modernize his Empire, the fictional African island of Azania, located in the Indian Ocean off of the eastern...
(1932) "Cruttwell" is a social parasite, and he becomes a dubious "bone-setter" in A Handful of Dust
A Handful of Dust
A Handful of Dust is a novel by Evelyn Waugh published in 1934. It is included in Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels, and was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present....
(1934). In Scoop
Scoop (novel)
Scoop is a 1938 novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, a satire of sensationalist journalism and foreign correspondence.-Plot:William Boot, a young man who lives in genteel poverty far from the iniquities of London, is contributor of nature notes to Lord Copper's Beast, a national newspaper...
(1938), "General Cruttwell" is a salesman with a fake tropical tan at the Army & Navy Stores. The 1935 short story "Mr Loveday's Little Outing", which recounts the grisly deeds of an escaped homicidal maniac, was originally published as "Mr Cruttwell's Little Outing". The final Cruttwell reference in Waugh's fiction came in 1939, in the short story "An Englishman's Home", in the form of an embezzling Wolf Cub
Cub Scout
A Cub Scout is a member of the section of the worldwide Scouting movement for young persons, mainly boys normally aged about 7 to 11. In some countries they are known by their original name of Wolf Cubs and are often referred to simply as Cubs. The movement is often referred to simply as Cubbing...
master. In 1935, in an additional gesture of sarcastic ridicule, Waugh told a survey in which modern novelists were asked to nominate their best work that his choice was as yet unwritten: "It is the memorial biography of C.R.M.F. Cruttwell, some time Dean of Hertford College, Oxford, and my old history tutor. It is a labour of love to one to whom, under God, I owe everything". As with Waugh's student tauntings, there is no record of any reaction from Cruttwell, although according to Stannard he anticipated each new Waugh novel with much trepidation about how he might be portrayed.
Later years
Cruttwell remained a bachelor throughout his life. His one proposal of marriage—to the socialite and later New York society hostess Anne Huth-Jackson—was rebuffed, and there are no accounts of other romantic attachments. Beyond his academic duties he enjoyed entertaining at his country house near the village of HighclereHighclere
Highclere is a village and civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the northern part of the county, near the Berkshire border. It is most famous for being the location of Highclere Castle....
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, where he was active in the local community and served as a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. Since the war, however, his health had suffered from the effects of his wounds, and he was subject to recurrent rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...
. In 1939 his poor physical condition led to his early retirement from the Hertford principalship. This was followed by a period of mental illness, possibly exacerbated by the continuing mockery from Waugh. Eventually he was confined to a mental hospital, the Burden Institute at Stapleton
Stapleton, Bristol
Stapleton is an area in the north-eastern suburbs of the city of Bristol, England. The name is colloquially used today to describe the ribbon village along Bell Hill and Park Road in the Frome Valley. It borders Eastville to the South and Begbrook and Frenchay to the North...
, near Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, where he died on 14 March 1941, aged 53. He left his book collection and a bequest of £1,000 to Hertford College, together with an oil portrait of him, painted in 1937 by his cousin, Grace Cruttwell. The probate value of his estate was £19,814.
Reputation
As a historian, Cruttwell was an accepted authority on the political and military history of the RhinelandRhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
. His professional standing is largely based on his Great War history, which biographer Geoffrey Ellis suggests is "most notable for its frank and fearless judgements on those identified as the principal actors (military, naval and political) in that tragic conflict". This work was widely admired at the time, and has undergone several reprints, but has also been criticised as lacking in humanity, displaying "almost no awareness of the appalling degree of suffering it chronicles". Ellis describes Cruttwell's textbooks on modern British and European history as "models of clarity and cogency". However, Cruttwell's professional reputation has been largely overshadowed by the attention given to his feud with Waugh, the true significance of which, Ellis believes, may have been somewhat exaggerated.
Cruttwell's relations with his colleagues and students have been the subject of contradictory reports. Evelyn Waugh's biographer Selena Hastings describes him as of "unprepossessing" appearance, "good-hearted but difficult", inclined to misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
, brusque and sometimes offensive towards his male colleagues. Waugh's own description is of someone "tall, almost loutish, with the face of a petulant baby", of indistinct speech, who "smoked a pipe which was attached to his blubber-lips by a thread of slime". However, Stannard records that Waugh's student contemporary Christopher Hollis
Christopher Hollis
Maurice Christopher Hollis, known as Christopher Hollis was a British schoolmaster, university teacher, author and Conservative politician.-Life:...
found nothing particularly remarkable about Cruttwell. "Like Waugh", says Stannard, "Cruttwell played up his eccentricities and had an uncharitable sense of humour". Ellis's 2004 biographical sketch suggests that much of Cruttwell's rebarbative manner may have been the result of simple shyness.
Although there clearly was a genuine mutual animosity between Cruttwell and Waugh, Hastings points out that Cruttwell had many occasions to suspend Waugh from the college, but did not do so. Ellis acknowledges a "forceful, forthright and eccentric character", but stresses Cruttwell's generous hospitality "to many who became his close friends", and a genuine concern for his undergraduates' welfare.