Conventions and Responses

Abstract

Galsworthy’s duplication of his father’s role, was implicit almost from the beginning of his school days, both in the positions of control he earned in the hierarchies among boys and in the stance of the calm arbitrator. Tutored at home by governesses until he was nine, he then went to a small school called Saugeen in Bournemouth, taken there each term by his father’s confidential clerk. The school was run by a Mr Brackenbury and his wife, regarded as tolerant and warm-hearted surrogate parents. Several of Galsworthy’s cousins and, later, his brother Hubert also attended. Johnny, now often called “Jack”, was not very good at cricket, but was an enthusiastic participant in all sports and by 1879 had become “the second best runner in the school”.¹ His work was sound and adequate, although not quick or precocious. He sang in the church choir and appeared in all the school plays, particularly welcoming one role as “A Rude Boy”. His outstanding characteristic, according to the comments Ada Galsworthy and H. V. Marrot solicited for the official biography, was still his extraordinary equanimity. Some of his contemporaries added that “his reserve and pleasant aloofness”² set him apart from others. One of the masters nicknamed him “Peace”, although his brother did not see him in quite that way.