Sometimes they thought him unduly harsh, sometimes incomprehensibly lenient. He could be decisive, as he demonstrated towards the end of October, when he expelled two boys for stealing and roundly denounced the ‘deplorable lack of a sense of responsibility towards private property in the school’. Yet the staff, and Stump especially, no longer felt certain that the Headmaster would support them in those disciplinary measures which were beginning to appear increasingly necessary because even normally responsible boys were misbehaving.”

“Although surprised by Stump’s account of staff discontent, Dr Moore was not unprepared to hear that something might be amiss. A short time before, he had received a deputation of parents dissatisfied with the Headmaster’s disciplinary method. They complained that while there was generally not enough discipline at Carey, Francis was too harsh when he did exert his authority.”