Colonel Haviland de Luce (Father)

## Character summary

Deeply, deeply obsessed with his extensive and valuable stamp collection. Father spends in his days mostly in the decaying Buckshaw in his study. Presumed widowed from his wife Harriet who disappeared ten years ago, he appears to be still mourning her death. Like Flavia, he sometimes sits in Harriet's old Rolls Royce Phantom II to think.

Physically present but emotionally distant to his three daughters, at meal times he's usually absorbed in the *London Philatelist.* He does organise occasional Wednesday lectures and Thursday nights are wireless nights.

During the second World War he was held captive in a Japanese prisoner of war camp with Dogger. Neither man likes to talk about their wartime experiences. The news of his wife's disappearance and presumed death arrived by telephone, and ever since he avoids using what he refers to as "the instrument".

Harriet disappeared intestate which has left Haviland with financial worries ever since.

## Name, age, appearance

Full name Haviland Laurence de Luce, and was known at school as Jacko, short for Jacksnipe. His sister sometimes calls him Havvie.

He is 50 years old in (1951? - check) and therefore probably born in 1901.

Father is described less by his physical appearance and more by his behaviour.

He sits and stands very straight and is often distracted or tired.

He wears spectacles which he absentmindedly removes and puts back when thinking. Flavia has hardly ever seen him in anything but his normal attire of "shirt, tie, vest, jacket, trousers, and mirror-polished boots".

## Relationships

Wife Harriet, three daughters Ophelia, Daphne and Flavia.

Sister Felicity, whom he sometimes refers to as Lissy.

Employees Dogger and Mrs. Mullet.

His main friend in Bishop's Lacey is the vicar of St. Tancred, Denwyn Richardson.

The Cornwall branch of the de Luces are of unknown distance on the family tree.

## Back story

Haviland was sent to Greyminster School, a member of Anson House. He felt that he was sent away because he had disappointed his own father. Although Greyminster is not far from Buckshaw, Haviland was not a Buckshaw resident at the time. His sister Felicity lives in Hampstead in London so perhaps he grew up in London.

He first discovered stamps when the Anson House housemaster, Dr. Twining, organised a stamp club. The headmaster of the school at the time, Dr. Kissing, also had an extensive stamp collection.

At school probably in 1919 he befriends Horace Bonepenny. He initially develops an interest in magic in another of Dr. Twining's clubs, but does not appear to have kept up the interest, opting exclusively for stamps. He attended the school year 1920-1921, and as he would have been about 19, this was presumably his last year.

We don't know about his military training or raising to the rank of Colonel, only that at some point he married his distant cousin Harriet, who was already a de Luce. Their eldest daughter Ophelia was born in 1933, followed by Daphne in 1936 and Flavia in 1939.

Flavia mentions that father was held captive as a prisoner of war with Dogger in Japan. The two men returned from the war together, with father offering Dogger a job at Buckshaw. As neither man likes to talk about their wartime experiences the little Flavia knows is gleaned from Mrs. Mullet and her husband Alf, namely that Dogger was first held in Changi and then worked on the Death Railway. This is therefore presumably also the case for Father.

## Book events

Spoiler warning: If you must read spoilers before reading the books, best do it while father's reading *The London Philatelist*. But he'll be disappointed in you.