Jennings (novels) - Characters

Characters

• J C T (John Christopher Timothy) Jennings — son of a businessman whose home is at Haywards Heath in the stockbroker belt. He is good-natured and well-meaning, but his tendency to act on impulse results in him getting in to trouble frequently. Buckeridge told BBC reporter Michael Crick that the fictional Jennings had been modelled on a schoolfriend, Diarmaid Jennings (1913–2009).
• C E J (Charles Edwin Jeremy) Darbishire — mild-mannered and short-sighted, the son of a clergyman, the Reverend Percival Darbishire, from whom he has inherited a habit of sententiously citing proverbs (generally prefixed with "My father says..."). Darbishire is Jennings's right hand man. Inherently more cautious than his best friend, he usually finds himself drawn into situations in which he would rather not be involved.
• Venables, Atkinson, Temple, Bromwich (Major) — classmates of Jennings in form 3 and fellow boarders in dormitory 4. Temple's nickname was Bod, from a tortuous schoolboy logic involving his initials, CAT (Charles A Temple), becoming Dog, then Dogsbody, and finally Bod.
• Pettigrew, Marshall — day pupils whose privileges Jennings "borrows" in order to assist him in bending school rules.
• Binns Minor, Blotwell — shrill-voiced first-formers who are treated with condescension appropriate to their years by Jennings and his contemporaries
• Mr L P (Lancelot Phineas) Wilkins (Old Wilkie) — Jennings's form master, a man of little patience and a volcanic temperament very occasionally redeemed by a heart of gold.
• Mr Michael Carter — Jennings's housemaster, a man of great imperturbability and patience, with a phenomenal ability to detect dissembling and violations of school rules. Nicknamed "Benedick", from his use of the Latin phrase "benedicto, benedicatur" (the second word sounding like "Benedick Carter"). This character was said by Buckeridge to be based on himself.
• Mr M W B (Martin Winthrop Barlow) Pemberton-Oakes (The Archbeako) — the headmaster, a classical scholar with a capacity to command immediate discipline.
• Mr Hind — Music master, mild of manner, trailing clouds of smoke from his cherrywood pipe — also teaches art to Form I.
• Mr Topliss — teaches shooting once a week in shooting range behind gymnasium.
• Matron — the school matron: she is sympathetic and understanding, but with a keen ability to spot malingerers.
• Miss Angela Birkenshaw (Aunt Angela) — Jennings's absent-minded aunt.

Most of the first names of characters have been revealed (John Christopher Timothy Jennings; Charles Edwin Jeremy Darbishire; Robin Atkinson; Charles Temple, etc.), but true to the form of British boarding schools, they generally are known exclusively by their surnames.

Minor recurring characters:

• Hawkins (Old Nightie) — the night watchman.
• Robinson (Old Pyjams) — the oddjob man. His nickname is obviously a pun on the nightwatchman's nickname of Old Nightie.
• Lieutenant General Sir Melville Merridew DSO MC Bart — retired general, the school's most distinguished alumnus, and frequent bestower of half-holidays.
• Miss Thorpe — tireless voluntary charitable worker within the Linbury community.
• PC Honeyball — Linbury's village policeman.
• Farmer Arrowsmith — owner of a farm adjoining the school grounds.
• Dr Basil Featherstonehaugh Hipkin — an absent-minded zoologist who meets Jennings and Darbishire when they accidentally push him into the river while they are on an illicit boating expedition.
• George the Third — matron's cat, a large ginger tom.
• Mrs Caffey — Linbury Court's housekeeper, "Mother Snackbar".