Editing William Frederick Collings

{{Infobox officeholder
| title       =[[Seigneur of Sark]]
| term        = 7 March 1882 – 20 June 1927
| predecessor =[[William Thomas Collings]]
| successor   =[[Sibyl Hathaway|Sibyl Beaumont]]
| birth_name  =
| image  =
| image_size  =
| caption  =
| birth_date  = 1852
| birth_place =
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1927|06|20|1852|||df=y}}
| death_place =
| education     =
| alma_mater =
| occupation    =
| religion      =
| party         =
| spouse        =Sophie Moffatt
| children      =[[Sibyl Hathaway]]<br>Doris Verschoyle
| parents       =[[William Thomas Collings]]<br>[[Louisa Collings|Louisa Lukis]]
}}

'''William Frederick Collings''' (1852 – 20 June 1927) was [[Seigneurs of Sark|seigneur]] of [[Sark]] from 1882 until his death. One of the most eccentric lords of the island, he was known for his [[anti-clericalism]], stubbornness, intemperance and generosity.

== Youth ==

Collings was the elder son and one of six children of [[William Thomas Collings]], Seigneur of Sark, and the lichenologist [[Louisa Collings|Louisa Collings (née Lukis)]]. An exceptionally tall and well-built blue-eyed man, he was the exact opposite of his father.<ref name="Smithsonian"/><ref name="Marr"/> The two never got along with each other. Collings refused to follow his father into the [[Church of England|Church]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. The compromise was a [[Grand Tour]].<ref name="Collings">{{cite book|last=Collings Hathaway|first=Sibyl|author-link=Sibyl Hathaway|publisher=Heinemann|title=Dame of Sark, an autobiography|year=1975}}</ref>

== Seigneurship ==

[[File:Collings Coat of Arms, Sark.JPG|thumb|upright|Collings family coat of arms at the gate of the Seigneurie]]
Collings inherited his father's fief on the latter's death in 1882, but none of his father's interest in military matters. Less than five years after his accession, the Royal Sark Militia, once cherished by his parents, deteriorated into what a visiting journalist described as "seven dozen pairs of boots". By 1900, he had neglected it enough for it to completely disappear. He refused to spend money on maintenance of his fief, but was the first seigneur to be sufficiently fond of it to reside there permanently. In 1899, he refused to sell the island for an enormous amount of money to a man who intended to open a casino there.<ref name="Marr">{{cite book|last=Marr|first=James|author-link=James Marr (author)|title=Guernsey people|year=1984|isbn=0850335299|publisher=Phillimore}}</ref>

The Sarkese admired Collings for his skill in sailing, shooting, and [[rock climbing]],<ref name="Smithsonian"/> and he enjoyed their strong support.<ref name="Marr"/> However, he was "a violent terror when he had taken drink", according to an islander.<ref name="Marr"/> The [[alcoholism]] caused him to attack the vicar's wife with his stick, write [[anti-clericalism|anticlerical]] messages on walls, insult the [[constable]], break window panes and ride into private gardens. He once appeared before the Sénéschal for threatening to shoot a journalist.<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web|url=http://footenotes.net/Pages/Sark.htm|title=How to Keep the 20th Century Mostly at Bay|date=May 1986|publisher=Smithsonian}}</ref><ref name="Anne">{{cite book|title=Women in World History|last=Commire|first=Anne|publisher=Gale|isbn=0787640662|year=2000|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninworldhist07comm}}</ref> Collings' bitter enemy on the island was the French-born vicar, who often displayed his animosity towards the British by omitting prayers for [[Queen Victoria]] and her family, to which the Seigneur responded by stamping out of the church and protesting to the vicar's superiors.<ref name="Marr"/>

== Family life ==

Collings was devoted to his wife Sophie (née Moffatt),<ref name="Marr"/> with whom he had two daughters, [[Sibyl Hathaway|Sibyl]] and Doris. As he had no sons, his elder daughter Sibyl was his [[heiress presumptive]]. He raised her as a boy and, despite her lameness caused by [[unequal leg length]], taught her to shoot, sail, and climb cliffs. Nevertheless, whenever they came into conflict, he called her a "damned [[virago]]". He never allowed either Doris or the physically disabled Sibyl to complain of pain or sadness, explaining that "they would be a lot worse off" when they grew old; Sibyl later expressed gratitude to her father for "being able to live a life free of the inconvenience of self-pity".<ref name="Smithsonian"/>

The seigneur strongly disapproved of his heiress presumptive's relationship with the painter [[Dudley Beaumont]], considering him a "weakling" because he did not shoot or climb cliffs. When he learned that she had continued seeing him, he threw her out from [[La Seigneurie]] in a nightdress. Despite his attempts to find her the next morning, she went to London and married Beaumont. For the first time since her marriage, Collings contacted her when she had her first child, a daughter named Bridget. Wishing to send a conciliatory telegram, he consoled her for giving birth to a daughter by writing: "Sorry it was a [[fox#Etymology|vixen]]."<ref name="Smithsonian"/> In April 1906, the seigneur and his wife survived a shipwreck, but it worsened her existing illness, leading to her death a few months later.<ref name="Marr"/>

== Old age and death ==
Collings paid [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] to [[King George V]] during his and [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]]'s visit to [[Guernsey]] in 1921, becoming the first seigneur of Sark to do so in person since [[Sir Philip Carteret, 1st Baronet|Sir Philip Carteret]] rendered homage to [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] on [[Jersey]] in 1650.<ref name="Marr"/> In his old age, the Seigneur became lenient and stopped requesting the inhabitants to pay him ''[[tithe|disme]]''. His widowed daughter succeeded him when he died on 20 June 1927, and quickly restored the seigneurial rights.<ref name="Smithsonian"/> She described her father as "extremely insubordinate, madly obstinate, fiercely self-opinionated and prone to outbreaks of uncontrolled rage," but noted that he was a "generous man" and "never hard on those who found difficulty in paying their rents or dues".<ref name="Marr"/>

==References==
<references/>

{{S-start}}
{{Succession box|
title=[[Seigneur of Sark]]|
years=1882–1927|
after=[[Sibyl Hathaway|Sibyl Beaumont]]|
before=[[William Thomas Collings]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{seigneurs of Sark}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, William Frederick}}
[[Category:1852 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:Seigneurs of Sark]]