Harry Douglas Clark Pepler (1878–1951), known as Hilary Pepler, was an English printer, writer and poet. He was an associate of both Eric Gill

Eric Gill

Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...

 and G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, working on publications in which they had an interest. He was also a founder with Gill and Desmond Chute

Desmond Chute

Father Desmond Macready Chute was an English artist, who became a Catholic priest in 1927. He was born in Bristol, where his father James Macready Chute ran the family theatre...

 in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at Ditchling

Ditchling

Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling....

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, that took the name The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic

The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic

The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic was an art colony and experiment in communal life in early 20th century England. The story of the Guild began when Eric Gill the sculptor and letter cutter came to Ditchling, Sussex in 1907 with his apprentice Joseph Cribb and was soon followed by fellow...

.

Life

His background was Quaker. He was born at Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...

 and educated at Bootham School

Bootham School

Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school in the city of York in North Yorkshire, England. It was founded by the Religious Society of Friends in 1823. It is close to York Minster. The current headmaster is Jonathan Taylor. The school's motto Membra Sumus Corporis Magni means "We...

. He met Gill in Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

, London, during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, through the Hampshire House Workshops. At that time Pepler was a social worker for the London County Council

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

, and organised the first London school meals service. Pepler and Gill were together mostly responsible for the Ditchling house magazine, The Game.

He founded in 1915 or 1916 the St. Dominic's Press. It published, amongst other books, important editions for the Ulysses Bookshop in High Holborn

High Holborn

High Holborn is a road in Holborn in central London, England. It starts in the west near St Giles Circus, then goes east, past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, and continues east. The road becomes Holborn at the junction with Gray's Inn Road....

, London owned by Jacob Schwartz

Jacob Schwartz

Jacob Schwartz may refer to:* Jacob T. Schwartz , known as Jack Schwartz, American mathematician and computer scientist.* Jacob Schwartz , known as Jack Lawrence, American musician...

, to 1937. These included works of James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

 (in fact pirate editions), but also George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

, John Drinkwater, Augustus John

Augustus John

Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....

, Chesterton and John Collier.

He became a Roman Catholic convert in 1916; and joined the Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

s as a lay member in 1918. At that time he changed his name to Hilary. Financial quarrels between Pepler and Gill may have led to Gill leaving the Ditchling group in 1924. Pepler was forced to leave the Guild in 1934.

After Chesterton's death in 1936, Pepler assisted Reginald Jebb, son-in-law of Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...

, in running The Weekly Review, the successor distributist publication to G. K.'s Weekly

G. K.'s Weekly

G. K.'s Weekly was a British publication founded in 1925 by G. K. Chesterton, continuing until his death in 1936. It contained much of his later journalism, and extracts from it were published as The Outline of Sanity....

. Stephen Dorril's Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism (2006) mentions Pepler in passing, as a member of the British People's Party

British Peoples Party (1940s)

The British People's Party was a British far right political party founded in 1939 and led by ex-British Union of Fascists member and Labour Party Member of Parliament John Beckett.-Origins:...

 in 1945.

Family

He married Clare Whiteman in 1904; they had three sons and three daughters.

His son David Pepler married Betty Gill, daughter of Eric Gill.

Pepler's son, Fr. Conrad Pepler

Conrad Pepler

Conrad Pepler O.P. was an English Dominican priest, writer, editor, and publisher. He founded Warden of the first Roman Catholic conference centre in the UK, at Spode House, Staffordshire.-Life:...

, O.P., ran the Dominican conference centre at Spode House, Staffordshire, for many years, and founded Spode Music Week

Spode Music Week

Spode Music Week is the name of an annual residential Music school that places particular emphasis on the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy. It is a registered charity in England...

.

Works

• The Care Committee. The Child & the Parent (1914)
• The Devil's Devices or, Control versus Service. With Woodcuts by Eric Gill (1915)
• Three Poems (St. Dominic's Press, 1918)
• Nisi Dominus (1919)
• Concerning Dragons (St. Dominic's Press, 1921)
• The Law the Lawyers Know About (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923)
• The Service for the Burial of the Dead according to the use of the Orthodox Greek Church in London. The Greek Text with a rendering in English (1922)
• In Petra. Being a Sequel to 'Nisi Dominus' (Saint Dominic's Press, 1923)
• Libellus lapidum (1924) with David Jones
  David Jones (poet)
  David Jones CH was both a painter and one of the first generation British modernist poets. As a painter he worked chiefly in watercolor, painting portraits and animal, landscape, legendary and religious subjects. He was also a wood-engraver and designer of inscriptions. As a writer he was...
  
  
• Judas or the betrayal: a play in one act (St. Dominic's Press 1926)
• Pilate - A Passion Play (St Dominic's Press, 1928)
• Plays For Puppets (St. Dominic's Press, 1929)
• A Nativity Play: The Three Wise Men (1929)
• Le Boeuf et L'Ane et deux autres pieces pour marionettes (St. Dominic's Press 1930)
• St. George and the Dragon: A One Act Play (1932)
• Mimes Sacred & Profane (St. Dominic's Press, 1932)
• The Hand Press: An Essay Written and Printed by Hand for the Society of Typographic Arts, Chicago (1934)
• The Field Is Won (1935) play
• The Four Minstrels of Bremen and "The Two Robbers", being more Plays for Puppets (St. Dominic's Press)
• A Letter About Eric Gill (1950)

External links

• Ditchling Museum
• The Law the Lawyers Know About, much-anthologised poem
• http://www.catholicauthors.com/pepler.html
• IHS Press page