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Lord Dacre

The Daily Telegraph‘s recent remembrance of Maurice Cowling relays the following tale:

At Peterhouse, Cowling enjoyed being a thorn in the side of Lord Dacre of Glanton (the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper) who – partly through Cowling’s influence – had been elected Master in 1980. He was a founder member of a college dining club, The Authenticators, nicknamed after Dacre’s authentication of the fake “Hitler Diaries”.

Invitations to the club carried a seal reading: “I’d stake my reputation on it.” Dacre was said to have retaliated by comparing Cowling’s circle to “a band of social outcasts living in a mountain cave under the command of a one-eyed Cyclops”.

There’s nothing so spiteful as an academic rivalry! I remember meeting the late Lord Dacre in Oxford about two years before his death. He was by then an ancient man, and the organiser of the assembly tried to make us feel impressed and privileged that we were able to meet such a man. I’m afraid, however, we took advantage of the Baron’s poor hearing and kept on whispering to eachother “Don’t mention the Hitler diaries!” (in the manner of Basil Fawlty’s “Don’t mention the War!” on Fawlty Towers). What can I say, we were young. At any rate, I hope the Authenticators still exist.

Published at 8:41 pm on Wednesday 31 August 2005. Categories: Great Britain History People.
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