Hilary Douglas Clark Pepler
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hilary Pepler
| honorific_suffix = TOSD
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth year|1878}}
| birth_place = Eastbourne, Sussex, England
| death_date = {{death year and age|1951|1878}}
| death_place =
| nationality =
| education = Bootham School
| occupation = Printer, writer and poet
| known for = The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic
| spouse = {{marriage|Clare Whiteman|1904}}
| partner =
| children = 6, including Conrad
| parents =
| relatives =
| website =
}}
Hilary "Harry" Douglas Clark Pepler {{post-nominals|post-noms=TOSD}} (1878–1951) was an English printer, writer and poet. He was an associate of both Eric Gill and G. K. Chesterton, working on publications in which they had an interest. He was also a founder with Gill and Desmond Chute in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at Ditchling, Sussex, called The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic.
Life
His background was Quaker.Keith Alldritt, David Jones: Writer and Artist (2003), p. 48. He was born at Eastbourne and educated at Bootham School.[https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/66287 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]{{cite book|author=Bootham Old Scholars Association |title=Bootham School Register|place=York, England|publisher=BOSA|year=2011}}[http://www.catholicauthors.com/pepler.html Hilary Pepler - CatholicAuthors.com] In the early 1900s, Pepler moved to Hammersmith, London with his wife Clare Whiteman.{{Cite book|last=Sewell|first=Brocard|title=Saint Dominic's Press: A Bibliography 1916-1937|publisher=The Whittington Press|location=Lower Marston, Herefordshire|pages=9–11}} Pepler became deeply involved in the aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the politics of Fabianism. He became friends with Edward Johnston and, during World War I, met Eric Gill through the Hampshire House Workshops. At that time, Pepler was a social worker for the London County Council, and organised the first London school meals service.Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill (1989), p. 65. Pepler and Gill were together mostly responsible for the Ditchling house magazine, The Game.
In 1915, Pepler moved to Ditchling, where Gill had set up a commune of religious artists and artisans. There, he founded St. Dominic's Press, with the intention of printing books “about crafts which machinery threatened with extinction.”{{Cite book|last=Pepler|first=Hilary|title=The Hand Press|publisher=Ditchling Press|year=1952|location=Ditchling|pages=1}} It published, amongst other books, important editions for the Ulysses Bookshop in High Holborn, London, owned by Jacob Schwartz, to 1937. These included works of James Joyce (in fact pirate editions),{{Cite web |url=http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/Speccoll/collections/joycejames/pirates_and_patrons.htm |title=Pirates and Patrons |access-date=6 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070917144416/http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/collections/joycejames/pirates_and_patrons.htm |archive-date=17 September 2007 |url-status=dead }} but also George Bernard Shaw, John Drinkwater, Augustus John, Chesterton and John Collier.
He became a Catholic convert in 1916; and joined the Dominicans as a lay member in 1918. At that time, he changed his name to Hilary. Financial quarrels between Pepler and Gill may have led to Gill leaving the Ditchling group in 1924.[http://www.pricejb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Guild/History.htm Aldritt, p. 56. Dated also to 1925] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060518013247/http://www.pricejb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Guild/History.htm |date=18 May 2006 }} Pepler was forced to leave the Guild in 1934.[http://www.ericgill.org.uk/guild/ The Eric Gill Society: Guild Members]
After Chesterton's death in 1936, Pepler assisted Reginald Jebb, son-in-law of Hilaire Belloc, in running The Weekly Review, the successor distributist publication to G. K.'s Weekly. Stephen Dorril's Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism (2006) mentions Pepler in passing, as a member of the British People's Party in 1945.
Family
He married Clare Whiteman in 1904; they had three sons and three daughters.{{cite web|last=Aleman |first=Richard |url=http://www.distributist.blogspot.com/2008/07/hdc-pepler-part-one.html |title=The ChesterBelloc Mandate: H.D.C. Pepler Part One |publisher=Distributist.blogspot.com |date=2008-07-24 |access-date=2013-04-22}} His son David Pepler married Betty Gill, daughter of Eric Gill. Pepler's son, Fr. Conrad Pepler, O.P., ran the Dominican conference centre at Spode House, Staffordshire, for many years, and founded Spode Music Week.
Works
- [https://archive.org/details/b24852855 The Care Committee. The Child & the Parent] (1914)
- [https://archive.org/details/cu31924032565990 The Devil's Devices or, Control versus Service], with wood engravings by Eric Gill (1915)
- [https://archive.org/details/justicechild00peplrich Justice and the Child] (1915)
- Three Poems (St. Dominic's Press, 1918)
- Nisi Dominus (1919)
- [https://archive.org/details/concerning-dragons Concerning Dragons], with wood engravings by Eric Gill (St. Dominic's Press, 1929)
- The Law the Lawyers Know About (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923)
- The Service for the Burial of the Dead according to the use of the Orthodox Greek Church in London. The Greek Text with a rendering in English (1922)
- In Petra. Being a Sequel to "Nisi Dominus" (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923)
- Libellus lapidum (1924) with David Jones
- Judas or the betrayal: a play in one act (St. Dominic's Press 1926)
- Pilate - A Passion Play (St Dominic's Press, 1928)
- Plays For Puppets (St. Dominic's Press, 1929)
- A Nativity Play: The Three Wise Men (1929)
- Le Boeuf et L'Ane et deux autres pieces pour marionettes (St. Dominic's Press 1930)
- St. George and the Dragon: A One Act Play (1932)
- Mimes Sacred & Profane (St. Dominic's Press, 1932)
- The Hand Press: An Essay Written and Printed by Hand for the Society of Typographic Arts, Chicago (1934)
- The Field Is Won (1935) play
- The Four Minstrels of Bremen and "The Two Robbers", being more Plays for Puppets (St. Dominic's Press)
- A Letter About Eric Gill (1950)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikisource author}}
- [https://guildjosephdominic.org.uk/index.php/hilary-pepler/ Biography of Pepler on Guild website]
- [http://www.ditchling-museum.com/ Ditchling Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009041142/http://www.ditchling-museum.com/ |date=9 October 2007 }}
- [http://gutenberg.com/eBooks/Poetry_Collection/pepler01.html#1 The Law the Lawyers Know About], much-anthologised poem
- [http://www.catholicauthors.com/pepler.html]
- {{IMDb name|1593710}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713005233/http://www.ihspress.com/hilary-pepler-18781951.php IHS Press page]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepler, Hilary Douglas Clark}}
Category:People educated at Bootham School
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Quakerism