Dear Old Sulgrave

Many a U.S. soldier now stationed in Britain may someday come home with a weighty academic degree--D.D., Ph.D., D.C.L. or anything he fancies--at the cost of very little trouble and, perhaps, -L-10. This unusual opportunity is offered by the University of Sulgrave, a new institution whose character and history have recently been discussed in the London Spectator.

The University takes its name from Sulgrave Manor, ancestral home of George Washington's family--a gesture befitting its purpose, which is 1) to offer "extension lectures" to U.S. soldiers quartered in Britain, 2) to "confer any and all recognized and used University Degrees, Academic Distinctions and Diplomas upon such persons whom the University deems worthy." As a further appropriate gesture, the University of Sulgrave is incorporated in the State of Delaware. Its note paper carries a coat of arms which (observes the Spectator) "the College of Heralds would find educative." Vice Chancellor and apparent head of the university is Dr. F. W. Crossley-Holland, D.L., J.P., C.C., D.C.L., D.Sc. (Hon.), M.D.

Sulgrave's faculty and campus have not yet come to light, but the names of a number of its officers such as Dr. Crossley-Holland indicate that Sulgrave has phoenixed from the ashes of the late Intercollegiate University. This distinguished British seat of learning was incorporated in Kansas in 1890. It was organized in Chicago by one F. E. J. Lloyd, an Englishman who assumed the title of Archbishop and Metropolitan of the "American Catholic Church."

Archbishop Lloyd consecrated one Churchill Sibley, who took the extended Intercollegiate University to London. He declared himself Archbishop of the "Orthodox Catholic Church of England" and consecrated at least three more bishops. From the university's hallowed halls--a flat in a dreary London side street--his Grace, sometimes known as "the Most Rev. Dr. Bunkum." dispensed diplomas as well as Holy Orders and (said a Scotland Yard man) "made a fat revenue by the sale of worthless degrees" until his death, at 80, in 1938.

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