This is a list of original characters found in the Greyfriars School stories by Charles Hamilton, writing as Frank Richards.
"Come in!" said the Head gently, as there was a tap at his door.
The door opened, to reveal the master of the Shell and the master of the Remove. Each stood aside with ceremonious and bitter politeness to allow the other to enter first. Each, finding that the other waited, decided at the same moment to enter first – with the natural result that there was a sudden jam in the doorway.
The Head promptly suppressed a smile. "Pray come in!" he said mildly.
Loder gritted his teeth.
"You've no right to question me, Wingate!" he muttered. "I'm a prefect, and- "
"And I am head-prefect, and responsible to the headmaster!" said Wingate icily. "Will you answer me?"
"No!" said Loder between his teeth.
"Very well, you will see Dr. Locke in the morning, and I've no doubt you will answer him!" said Wingate dryly. And he turned away to go back in his room.
"Hold on!" gasped Loder.
"Well?" Wingate spoke over his shoulder.
"You're going to report this to the Head?"
"I've got to."
"You could mind your own business!" said Loder bitterly.
"If I did not make this my business, Loder, I should resign my prefect-ship. Is that all you have to say?"
"No!" breathed Loder. "I-I've not been out if you want to know."
"You picked up that wet mud on your boots indoors?" asked Wingate with cool contempt.
"How many K's in exasperating?" asked Horace Coker.
Potter and Greene of the Fifth smiled.
Coker's aunt, Miss Judith Coker, had an idea that it was up to Coker of the Fifth to help his young cousin in the Remove with his lessons!
Probably, had Coker's Aunt Judy heard that question, she would have changed her ideas on the subject!
"None, old chap," said Potter gently.
"Don't be an ass, Potter!" said Coker crossly. "Do you know, Greeney? Are there one or two - single or double?"
"I wouldn't put any," said Greene, shaking his head.
"Don't be a fathead, Greene!"
The Remove is the home of the main protagonists in the stories, including the Famous Five, Billy Bunter, and Herbert Vernon-Smith. It is frequently described in the stories as a "numerous" form, and with good reason: over the 53-year period of publication, it is estimated that more than 80 schoolboys passed through the form. Most of these arrived as a central character in a particular storyline, and disappeared shortly afterwards, having either been expelled or simply not mentioned again. [4]
The following list of members of the Remove is that published in The Magnet No. 1,659, and organised by the studies to which they are assigned. Of the 39 characters in the list, it is noteworthy that it took the author 559 weeks to assemble 38 of them.
There are few mentions of a First form at Greyfriars and none at all after the early era of The Magnet. [6] [7]
"Bessie!"
"Oh!"
"Keep that basket shut!"
"I'm only counting the tarts!" said Bessie Bunter, with a great deal of dignity.
"Well," said Miss Clara Trevlyn, "don't! The more often you count them, the less there will be to count."
"If you think I was eating a tart behind this sunshade, Clara - "
"I believe you'd eat the sunshade, if there wasn't anything else to eat!"
"Cat!"
"So that's the game, is it?" muttered Gadsby.
"That's it!" said Pon. "If that leads to trouble between Cliff House and Greyfriars, it's about the hardest knock we could give those cads!"
Gadsby breathed hard.
"I dare say!" he said. "It's the sort of thing you would think of, Pon. I'm not standing for it!"
"Nor I!" said Monson slowly. "It's too thick, Pon! I don't care so far as the Greyfriars cads are concerned, but I'm not goin' to have a hand in raggin' girls. There's a limit!"
"You can please yourselves - but you won't barge in!" said Ponsonby, with a glitter in his eyes. "Steer clear, if you like. The girls won't come to any harm- they'll get a fright, but we shall take them off later, in time to get them back to their school. As soon as they've got it into their heads that it was Bob Cherry who stranded them, that's all I want."
"I'm havin' no hand in it!"
"Same here!"
St. Jim's School was created by Charles Hamilton in 1907 for stories featured in The Gem, with the author writing as Martin Clifford. The first Gem stories therefore appeared before The Magnet was first published; but the appearances and first introductions below are those for the Greyfriars stories in The Magnet. The leading characters at St. Jim's occasionally appeared in Greyfriars stories, for example in episodes involving sporting fixtures or holiday travel stories.
Rookwood School was created by Charles Hamilton in 1915 for stories featured in the Boy's Friend Weekly, with the author writing as Owen Conquest. As with St. Jim's, the leading characters at Rookwood occasionally appeared in Greyfriars stories, usually when a Greyfriars Remove cricket or soccer team was matched against a Rookwood team captained by Jimmy Silver. The appearances and first introductions below are those for the Greyfriars stories in The Magnet.
"Plummy - I think your name is Plummy, little boy-"
"Cherry, ma'am!" said Bob, with a red face.
"Dear me! I thought I remembered that your name was Plummy!" said Miss Coker. "I knew it was some kind of a fruit or a vegetable."
Bob breathed hard, quite conscious of the suppressed smiles of his comrades.
"But I was going to say, Plummy - I mean, Gooseberry - did you say your name was Gooseberry- "
"Cherry!" hissed Bob.
"Yes, yes, of course, Cherry!" said Miss Coker. "A very pretty name, little boy, and very suitable indeed to a little lad with such rosy cheeks."
Bob's cheeks were very rosy indeed just then!
The expression on Bill Lodgey's face, as he came, was aggressive, bullying. But it changed as he saw Hazel.
"I've got it!" muttered Hazel. "I - I - I managed it, after all. I - I've got it." He fumbled in his pocket.
Lodgey's eyes remained fixed on his face.
Hazel's hand came out of his pocket, with a banknote for ten pounds crumpled in it.
Lodgey made no movement to take it.
Not for twice and thrice ten pounds would Bill Lodgey have touched that banknote - with that look in the wretched boy's face. Lodgey had had many narrow escapes, in his time, from seeing the inside of a prison cell, and was by no means anxious to find himself quartered in one.
Hazel held out the banknote.
Mr. Lodgey put his hands behind him." "You young fool!" he said. "You young idiot! Put it back in your pocket!"
Hazel stared at him wildly.
What do you mean?" His voice was cracked. "What-"
"I mean," said Mr. Lodgey quietly, "that you'd better go straight back to where you found that banknote, and put it back. Think I'm blind, or what? You mad young fool!"