Editor’s note: the King William’s College quiz has appeared in the Guardian since 1951. The quiz is no longer sat formally; it is sent to the schoolchildren and their families to tackle over the Christmas holiday. So yes, you are allowed to Google – however, the questions are constructed to make that less than straightforward. Good luck!
General knowledge paper, 2022-23, No 118, sat by the pupils of King William’s College, Isle of Man
“Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est”
1. During 1922:
1 what name was adopted by Siciliano?
2 where, following an election, did XI replace XV?
3 in what was one of the protagonists’ inappropriate liking for offal, and especially grilled mutton kidneys, revealed?
4 how might one have justified 0 x 8 + 11 (+4) = 15 and a most improbable result?
5 who started a six-year sentence for sedition, but would be released after two years owing to appendicitis?
6 whose unnatural death is perhaps recalled by airline passengers changing trains when heading for the Tafelhalle?
7 which prize winner gained a son who would in due course be similarly rewarded?
8 and who faced the firing squad five decades before his son was elected president?
9 who was gunned down outside No 36 Eaton Place?
10 how did the Seine cause 86 people to drown?
2.
1 where did the Aston Martin become entangled with Tilly’s TR3?
2 where did Jake, Robert and Bill buy a pretty good rod cheap and two landing-nets?
3 which city sent the most insurrectionary tune into the world that was ever composed?
4 where was the portable guillotine put to good use in the town square following its transfer from Sophia?
5 where, thinking of dinner, did Christy-Pallière anticipate Hébert’s fish soup followed by langouste in court-bouillon?
6 what little place is noted for the making of lace, for drunkenness, for freedom of language and for unparallel political discussion?
7 where did the wine merchant receive a gunshot wound, leading to a request for the inspector to visit from Rennes?
8 where did des Grieux meet the prospective nun, following her arrival on the Arras coach?
9 where were Bibi and his beloved daughter rescued by those demmed English spies?
10 where was the lord primate’s costly turquoise found in a corvid nest?
3. In what:
1 yarn did the narrator champion a charismatic but doomed colonial ivory trader?
2 did the ship-wrecked Caucasian émigré wed the serving girl with a “heart of gold”?
3 story did the Eurasian daughter of the eponymous subject elope with the raja’s son?
4 simple tale did an accident spare the Greenwich observatory but result in the fragmentation of the bomb-carrier?
5 tale did the junior partner relate how he was wrapped in a hammock and stitched up from the feet to the throat as if he had been a corpse?
6 romance was an ancient, beached schooner, used as an arsenal, fired by the old Norwegian “caretaker”, enabling the escape of the hostages?
7 confession was it supposed that the ship’s entire supply of quinine had been sold in Haiphong for about 15 pounds?
8 narrative did a cargo of coal suffer spontaneous combustion to the south of Java Head?
9 did the eponymous hero recall repeatedly: “Eight hundred people and seven boats”?
10 preferred sub-titled maritime story was the dying subject accused of malingering?
4. Who:
1 was “sense” if Marianne was “sensibility”?
2 thanks to Longshanks, is remembered at Geddington?
3 adopted a disguise whose gender deceived Rocco’s daughter?
4 stood in after the Frederikshald tragedy before handing over to her husband?
5 according to legend, murdered the king’s mistress, in her Woodstock “prison”?
6 anticipated the RSPB by 500 years and is remembered in the name of a migratory raptor?
7 likened her sex to a teabag, with an ability to get stronger with increasing heat?
8 exchanged poetry with Amory one year after her attempted suicide?
9 wears the face that she keeps in a jar by the church door?
10 as Florimel, impressed the celebrated diarist?
5. Who:
1 could liquidise one like a carrot in a kitchen blender?
2 received a version of Agamemnon as a leaving present?
3 was associated with corporal punishment by the celebrated Venusian poet?
4 was a most come-at-able lady, who would dress the children’s chilblains in winter?
5 was the one-armed art master, who had lost the contents of his left sleeve in the Great War?
6 was reprimanded by his wife for reading a disguised copy of Lives of the Great Poisoners at table?
7 took Old Pompous’s umbrella without permission, and with disastrous consequences?
8 after wrongly pronouncing butter, was accused of making fritters of English?
9 was run over by a tram in Stoke-on-Trent when one-over-the-eight?
10 made the most dismal sounds when playing his flute?
6.
1 where are the Pumas caged?
2 whose break is less destructive than Rolando?
3 what had a Sandhurst interlude lasting for 37 years?
4 what passed from Britain to the Netherlands in 1824?
5 where did the two enjoy coffee and kümmel with von Brüning in a dingy inn-parlour?
6 after which conflict did Alfred show compassion for the defeated leader’s wife and his two sons?
7 in what do everlasting praise and magnification appear repeatedly?
8 where did Charles Edward adopt a disguise as Betty?
9 which Girl of my Heart perished at Kastellorizo?
10 which brewery owed its origin to a Pope?
7.
1 what is liable to herniation?
2 what was the haunt of the Tom Puddings?
3 where is Juno still working after more than 140 years?
4 which canal is carried over another by a unique swing bridge?
5 on which canal did Cressy find a lock full of the bloated, putrifying bodies of rats?
6 on which canal did Arethusa find the water at about the drinking temperature of tea?
7 where did the club-footed poet succeed, while Scott and Mengaldo failed?
8 where can you darn your socks when it’s still in its locks?
9 which two canals are linked by a rotating boat lift?
10 what was the target of Garlic?
8.
1 who practised the “so easy” sidestroke in the turbid Amazon?
2 which Torpedo pioneered the swim from Donaghadee to Portpatrick?
3 who swam to Safety Bay beside the Swiss pastor’s makeshift vessel of eight tubs?
4 who escaped entanglement with a cephalopod during a 300 yards swim in Shark Bay?
5 who was reduced to a mass of blue-grey mottled flesh after skinny-dipping between Old Mill Road and Scotch?
6 after an epic Manhattan swim, which Olympian made a trail-blazing crossing of the English channel the following year?
7 whose parent did the son of Ecgtheow decapitate, having swum to the bottom of the monster-infested lake?
8 whose swim through the iron curtain received praise from Gorbachev and Reagan?
9 which Salopian failed, terminally, to swim through the Whirlpool Rapids?
10 who faintly stretched his dripping limbs, having swum for Glory?
9. Which:
1 plotter composed an elegy on the eve of his execution?
2 traitor was sympathetically described in poetry by a Nobel laureate?
3 Irish officer in the British army was executed for leading his eponymous plot?
4 couple were, according to another Nobel laureate, “sacrificial lambs in the marketplace sold”?
5 Dutch suicide’s embalmed body was posthumously executed by hanging in its coffin from a gibbet?
6 black sheep from an eminent political family pleaded guilty to treason in a trial lasting eight minutes?
7 RAF pilot stole a Hurricane and later infiltrated resistance groups on behalf of the enemy?
8 sometime governor was executed close to the present site of a noted island school?
9 bellicose abolitionist’s soul is still mobile 160 years after his execution?
10 vulpine traitor lost his head after capture beside Loch Morar?
10.
1 with what does a sharp play on an untrue cloth?
2 who invited Frederic Henry to play billiards at Stresa?
3 at what was Felson opposed by Findley during the Kentucky Derby?
4 what islet did Mr Anthony Hurrell describe as being as bare as a billiard-table?
5 why did Charmian decline the queen’s demand that they play billiards, suggesting that she play with the eunuch instead?
6 which six-times World Champion claimed that snooker would prevail if a choice was to be made between marital constancy and snooker?
7 where were Harris and his friends denied overnight accommodation on the billiard-table?
8 which sovereign’s body was temporarily shrouded in her own billiard cloth?
9 to what did the Billiard-marker apply chalk with quivering hand?
10 to what were the sleeping Platypus family likened?
11.
1 where are they urged to serve to lead?
2 and where should I do as much as I can?
3 where was the French Prince, killed in the Zulu war, initially laid to rest?
4 where are two holders of the VC entombed in the Church of St John the Baptist?
5 where does the prominent octagonal water tower offer a distant view of a royal residence?
6 where was accommodation provided for Young, Sutcliffe, Clark and many others of similar persuasion?
7 what insular trading post was named after the secretary of state for war and the colonies?
8 where was the great novelist’s return from Paris interrupted by a fatal derailment?
9 where is it thought that the infant Taxus started life around 2,000 BC?
10 where do the Verderers hold Court in the Queen’s House?
12.
1 who started quite simply in Pimlico?
2 whose popular show lacked the anticipated nudity?
3 which fraternity started with a street urchin in Mayfair?
4 who graduated from a passage in N1 to a stately home in Suffolk?
5 who barbecued marinated puffin, but also had a life-threatening fall into the sea?
6 who could produce crisp sausages and fragrant shavings of bacon, and shapely poached eggs?
7 who, despite her limitations, prepared curried chicken for Mr Phelps’s breakfast?
8 who prepared roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce?
9 which pioneer produced menus for Le Diable Boiteux?
10 who found the sandwiches fatally unpalatable?
13. Where:
1 was Goblin’s home port?
2 was grain milled under lunar influence until 1957?
3 does a plaque on the inn refer to a famously willing carrier?
4 was a Scene on a Navigable River captured by the East Bergholt master?
5 did the threat of invasion necessitate evacuation of the boys to Derbyshire?
6 did Magnus’s dinner companion suffer postprandial confusion and enter the bedroom of his prospective bride?
7 was the famed Glaswegian architect and artist arrested as a German spy?
8 did spontaneous combustion of nitrocellulose cause 28 deaths?
9 did The Building of the House launch the new venue?
10 is there a lighthouse in Stradbroke Road?
14. In which letter did the writer:
1 employ Phebe as postman?
2 address the recipients as foolish?
3 regard charity as superior to both faith and hope?
4 uniquely address his message to a lady and her children?
5 emphasise the superiority of Christ over, the angels, Moses and the high priests?
6 anticipate his own demise, and urge his “beloved son” to bring books and the parchments?
7 urge consideration of things honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report?
8 allude to the recipient being his representative in Crete?
9 reveal Enoch’s relationship to Adam?
10 provide marriage guidance?
15.
1 where is the city’s leaning tower?
2 from what did Sarah parachute to a muddy landing?
3 where did the Second Master describe grinding at the mill for 27 years?
4 which famous vessel’s return home from Stanley was initiated by a Manxman?
5 what did the precocious teenager describe as the pride of Bristowe and the western land?
6 where does a Saxon carving represent the interlude between crucifixion and resurrection?
7 from where did the Squire write in duplicate to the Doctor regarding his recent purchase?
8 who found the stairs and basement kitchen in Pembroke Road too much?
9 which centre takes its name from a 15th-century masterpiece?
10 where did Mr Winkle take up quarters?
16.
1 who spent four years in Bath in the 1930s?
2 which countess enjoyed holidays on the Côte d’Azur?
3 whose heir was killed in a colonial war in southern Africa?
4 who worked in a botanical garden after his return home from Russia?
5 who had to pay compensation for the damage he did during a visit to Deptford?
6 who was accorded full military honours when he arrived in Paris in 1976, centuries after his death?
7 who was rescued from a Black Sea port in a ship belonging to her nephew?
8 who spent his final days in the US, Panama and finally Egypt?
9 who was fatally stabbed on the shore of Lake Geneva?
10 who spent his final years in exile in Rangoon?
17.
1 who failed to survive her 10th confinement?
2 who greeted premiers past and present two days before she died?
3 whose shared tomb bears the epitaph describing half-sisters In Spe Resurrectionis?
4 on the anniversary of the death of which like-named ancestor did her late majesty pass away?
5 who provided the ancestral link between the Houses of Stuart and Hanover and “ended her unfortunate life” in Leicester House?
6 following whose death did the king ensure that masses were said in the Auld Kirk in gratitude for the parishioners’ treatment of her mortal remains?
7 for which popular princess was court mourning interrupted by celebrations of the marriage of her niece?
8 who died tragically, aged four months, and is remembered with Scoular’s poignant statue?
9 who died on her 37th birthday, nine days after her seventh confinement?
10 who was placed upon the bier in happier times than on the throne?
18. During 2022:
1 how was Charlotte devastated by Ian’s behaviour?
2 how has Neanderthal facilitated which prize winner?
3 whose statue recalls his majesty’s grandmother’s greatest racing disappointment?
4 which two countries have agreed on an international border dividing which islet equally?
5 which former president survived an assassination attempt, thanks to a malfunctioning firearm?
6 justifying her name, which Framnæs product has been viewed for the first time after almost 107 years?
7 which soubriquet applied to Der Alte Fritz, was suggested in parliament for her late majesty?
8 at what prestigious ceremony did an oblique reference to alopecia lead to an assault?
9 whose round was painfully terminated at the 3rd at Pannal?
10 whose Slow Death has very sadly been accelerated?