Editing Evelyn Waugh (section)

=== Lancing ===

[[File:Lancing College (1392998994).jpg|thumb|left|[[Lancing College Chapel]] in [[West Sussex]]]]
Like his father before him, Alec Waugh went to school at Sherborne. It was presumed by the family that Evelyn would follow, but in 1915, the school asked Evelyn's older brother Alec to leave after a [[homosexual]] relationship came to light. Alec departed Sherborne for military training as an [[Military officer|officer]], and, while awaiting confirmation of his [[Commission (document)|commission]], wrote ''The Loom of Youth'' (1917), a novel of school life, which alluded to homosexual friendships at a school that was recognisably Sherborne. The public sensation caused by Alec's novel so offended the school that it became impossible for Evelyn to go there. In May 1917, much to his annoyance, he was sent to [[Lancing College]], in his opinion a decidedly inferior school.<ref name= Stannard42/>

Waugh soon overcame his initial aversion to Lancing, settled in and established his reputation as an [[aesthete]]. In November 1917 his essay "In Defence of Cubism" (1917) was accepted by and published in the arts magazine ''Drawing and Design''; it was his first published article.<ref>Gallager (ed.), pp. 6–8</ref> Within the school, he became mildly subversive, mocking the school's cadet corps and founding the Corpse Club "for those who were bored stiff".<ref name= StannardODNB>{{cite odnb |last=Stannard |first=Martin |title=Evelyn Arthur St John Waugh (1903–06) |id=36788 |year=2011 |origyear=2004 }}</ref><ref>BBC Radio, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qmbsc</ref> The end of the war saw the return to the school of younger masters such as [[J. F. Roxburgh]], who encouraged Waugh to write and predicted a great future for him.<ref>Waugh, ''A Little Learning'', pp. 160–161</ref>{{refn|A biography of Roxburgh (who went on to be first headmaster of [[Stowe School]]) was the last work given a literary review by Waugh, in ''[[The Observer]]'' on 17 October 1965.<ref>"Portrait of a Head", first published in ''The Observer'', 17 October 1965, reprinted in Gallagher (ed.), pp. 638–639</ref> |group= n}} Another mentor, Francis Crease, taught Waugh the arts of [[calligraphy]] and decorative design; some of the boy's work was good enough to be used by Chapman and Hall on book jackets.<ref>Sykes, p. 25</ref>

In his later years at Lancing, Waugh achieved success as a house captain, editor of the school magazine and president of the [[debating society]], and won numerous art and literature prizes.<ref name= StannardODNB/> He also shed most of his religious beliefs.<ref>Sykes, pp. 32–33</ref> He started a novel of school life, untitled, but abandoned the effort after writing around 5,000 words.<ref>Slater (ed.), pp. xvi, 535–547</ref> He ended his schooldays by winning a scholarship to read Modern History at [[Hertford College, Oxford]], and left Lancing in December 1921.<ref>Sykes, p. 35</ref>