h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right, I'm overdue already so off to bed.

Now this thread is running with a pulse again and I've lain out the known clues about as boldly as I can, I'm off to bed. Keep the guesses coming guys, and I'll sort out the diamonds from the coke in the morning.

I had to go look that up Taff.

No his only objection was to people harassing him.

Risking a klaxon........

Did he break one of the Ten Commandments, one that was also a criminal matter at that time???




GT

were others hurt by him, resulting in injury, asaults etc.

In a sense, I suppose so.

No Taff, if these was any injury at all, it was in keeping with the theme of this QI , self-inflicted.

was he coveting his neighbours ass

was he contravineing sunday trading laws

vicar-ing with undue care and attention

being catholic in a buit up area

heresy with malice aforethought

taking the lords name in vain with intent to cause offence

preaching without a licence

giving a sermon likely to provoke violence

sedition

Did he somehow attempt suicide???




GT

trying to drown himself in a flooded barrel and people kept saving him

a tail of woe or wwhoah

he kept putting the barrel infront of dray horses trying to kill himself

We have a winner!




He was accused of attempting suicide (in the barrel). GT +3


Any advances on how - for points?

Then I'll call this one closed and write up the full and lengthy explanation.

Not drowning or wild horses.

Starving himself?

Correct! He was on a hunger strike when he was served with papers notifying him of the crime of attempting suicide.

Mal+3

I hereby declare this QI closed, I'll write up the pints and the explanation shortly..

Ooooh

The Reverend Harold Francis Davidson (1875 - 1937) was a priest, specifically a rector (they receive not only a stipend as remuneration for spiritual services delivered but proceeds from tithes, thus making them in monetary terms worth more than a humble vicar or a curate in the Anglican pantheon) of a small rural hamlet of Stiffkey in - where else? - Norfolk.

After taking ecclesiastical orders studying in oxford and training in Windsor, Davidson is awarded the living (see above) of Stiffkey where he takes up residence in 1905.
Shortly after arriving at his new abode he settled into the habit of spending his weekends in London, catching the train there and back first and last thing. His mission: to save the souls of the sex workers in Soho.

Specialising in rescue of pretty young women from temptations of the flesh it was important that they were both pretty and young; a tendency towards ugliness was considered a blessing in disguise - in his own words:

"I like to catch them between 14 and 20. I believe with all my soul if Christ were born again [...] in the present day he would constantly be found walking in Piccadilly."

Hubris begins 1920 when Davidson meets Rose Ellis a 20 year old prostitute he dedicates the next decade to saving her. Earnest and naive, Davidson is accused of taking her to Paris - Not denying the charge, he counters it - it was to find as job as an au pair; he tries to normalise her relationships by paying her rent for her and addressing her to others as his secretary. She would eventually be involved his in downfall.

During the First World War he served as a Royal Navy chaplain. When he returned, his wife, Molly, whom he had married in October 1906 after a six-year engagement, was pregnant by another man. When the child was born Davidson adopted it as his own. His trips to London resume in 1921.
In the early 1930s Davidson meets Barbara Harris. It was his extension of so-he-said paternal kindness towards the 16 year old prostitute Barbara Harris i, that would prove Davidson's undoing.

Like Rose Ellis before her, he also paid Baraba's rent, found her places to stay and offers of work. She in return called him Uncle Harold, and would return to his care whenever her life grew ugly.

Nemesis arrived in the shape and form of Major Philip Hammond, a local magistrate and veteran of the Boer war. Davidson's mission on the streets of London meant he was frequently absent for Sunday services, a matter that greatly excised the major, but the proverbial straw that did for the dromedary, was when the Stiffkey Rector neglected to attend a ceremony marking Armistice Day - he made an official complain to the Bishop of Norfolk - a Dr Pollock - who initiated an investigation into Davidsons' activities.

That enquiry is the stuff of legend. The Bishop contacted a firm of private investigators to ferret up the dirt on the Rector. Providing (some might say 'plying') Rose Ellis with several drinks of port and paying her the princely sum of 40d for her information, she became the star witness for the prosecution at his later trail, when she described in detail to the investigators her 'Uncle Harold'.

Davidson was apoplectic. He fires of a letter to Dr Pollock protesting Rose had been bribed with alcohol and announcing:

"For years I have been known as 'The Prostitute's Padre', to me that is the proudest title a true priest of Christ can hold!'

Rose sold her story to a national paper and now took up Harold's side, accusing the detectives of bribing her.

Davidson now took to the pulpit to proclaim his innocence and to excoriate his accusers; the audiences it was said came from far and wide just to listen.

It is just possible that Davidson was involved in a sting operation intended to frame him. He was warned by an anonymous tip, so he said at his disciplinary trial, that in three weeks time he would be invited to a house to meet a woman of title - and would then be met by two detectives who would catch him in a compromising position.

Not heeding this advice, he went and was photograph with a naked woman - who in turn it was revealed at trial, was only 15.

But events hit a nadir in 1932, when Barbara Harris filed charges of rape and breach of promise against him.

This brought matters to a head and he was charged under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892 of committing 'adultery' with Rose Ellis and 'habitually associating with women of loose character for immoral purposes' on 20th January 1932 with the Consistory Court proceedings beginning in Febuary or March that same year.

At that trial - presided over by Chancellor of the Diocese: F. Keppel North - Davidson's hurriedly arranged defence team had lumps taken out of them by the guile of Barbara Harris - who when asked by Davidson's defence lawyer R Levy if she was always in the habit of remaining on good terms with those who rape her, replied:

"I do if they are useful."

All hope died when the photograph of the naked 15 year old girl in was revealed by the prosecuting team. Chancellor North, after closely studying the photograph with a magnifying glass spoke directly to Davidson:

"I am trying to be much like a machine as I can but I am only human."

Davidson said nothing, which left on his defence lawyer to mumble wretchedly:

"I hope you will be not only human but judicial too."

and so he was - finding against Davidson, denouncing his claims to meek ministry as a tissue of lies, and striping him of Holy Orders.

-----------------------------

Vilified as a sex-fiend and deprived of his stipendary subsistence, Davidson accepted the advice of Luke Gannon, a Blackpool showman, to exhibit himself to make money to fund his on-going defence.

And this is how he wound up inside a barrel on the promenade on the west coast. He charged 2d to the crowds of enthusiastic members of the public, who just love a good scandal so came in their droves.

So popular was he that the crowds proved an obstruction and since he was deemed to be 'performing without a licence' he was hauled before a magistrate and harangued, and successfully prosecuted.

Having now obtained a legal permit, he took his act to the Birmingham Music Halls, where curtain calls were frequent, and he could be called back to the stage 5 times a night by adoring audiences.

Back in Blackpool and the barrel he began a hunger strike, the authorities served him with papers for trying to commit suicide and he was again tried but this time acquitted.

He leaves Blackpool taking up residency with Freddy the Lion in a cage in Skegness. A docile creature happy it seemed to play along with the rector's eccentric performances. From within the cage Davidson would lecture the assembled crowds on how true christians endure persecution, and offering up fiery denunciations of The Archbishop of Canterbury, the entire leadership of The Church of England, and specifically, The Bishop of Norfolk.

On the evening of July 30th 1937, something went terribly wrong, and he was fatally mauled by Freddy.

His death was ruled by a coroner 'death by misadventure' and decrying further intrusion, his wife petitioned to have no further investigations.

His former parishioners had long sicne forgiven him his indiscretions so lobbied to have him buried in the grounds of Stiffkey. The funeral, appropriately, was a sensational affair. 3000 mourners crammed into the church, Molly refused to wear black but came clad in white and the police had to drive the crowds back.

Recently BBC Norfolk reported on the on-going campaign to clear his name.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/extra/series-1/vicar_lion.shtml

A few other lurid details I've just dug up cross-checking the replies with reality for points.

After his final sermon having lost his disciplinary trial he was assaulted by Major Philip Hammond who kicked him down the steps of the Stiffkey church. Prosecuted for assault, Hammond remarked the kick was one of "finality and contempt"

He was fined 20 shillings, but did not have to pay the fine in full himself - he received may letters of support, so the legend goes, containing donations helping towards the fine, and one that contained a packet of hobnails that he might "attach them to the sole of his boots next time!"

During his time in the barrel in Blackpool after seeing off the charge of attempted suicide, his very last entanglement with the law who are not so minded to forgive someone their trespasses fined Davidson for trespass at Victoria Station. To escape the police he hid in the lion's cage. Eventually though he was arrested upon exit on the 20th of July 1937 and served the fine which amounted to £7 and 2 shillings.

QI - 'A tail of much woe'

'Has a Christian ever been persecuted and fed to a lion?'


Correct (+3)
------------------------
Ekky (44) - "Exhibited in Blackpool"
Ekky (61) - "Saving fallen women / The Prostitute's Padre"
Taff (76) - "Causing an obstruction"
GT (130) - "Attempted Suicide"
Mal (136) - "Starving himself."



QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------
Masaqui (32)- "Harrod's sold a lion cub."
Iago (35) - "The Sassanians sense of humour."


DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
Taff (24) - "The Book of Daniel"
Taff (64) - "The Missionary was based on Davidson" *
Masaqui (32) - "He stepped on the lion's tail."
Feisor (94) - "He didn't 'do' anything."
KB - "Failure to pay" **

Klaxon (-5)
------------------------
Iago (2) - In answer to the original question: "No."
Taff (10) - "The Romans"
Taff (24) - "Siegfried and Roy"
Taff (49) - "Telling the bishop to F- off!


Elf Bonus (+2)
------------------------
Clive




Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------
Masaqui +7
Ekky +6
GT +3
Mal +3
Clive +2
King Bomba +1
Feisor +1
Iago +1
Taff -10

Rather excitingly - A Big Tent Sensation - it's our new arrival, Masaqui!
2nd place - they make the trapeze look effortless, it's Ekky and his dad!
and in join 3rd, juggle 3 points a piece - it's GT and Mal!
But the saddest sad clown in the circus is Taff with minus 10.

All that remains therefore is for us to thank everyone who attended and the reflect upon this wholesome truth:

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

Good night!

---------------------


*In the thread I got this wrong and said it wasn't based on Davidson's life, but it turns out it was the filmmakers omitted the lion and transplanted the story from 1937 to Edwardian period.

** Hence my reasoning for including in the addendum the story of his fine for trespass.