At a time when British schoolboys were expected to be keen, lively, and straightforward, Fleming affected to be bored, languid, and Byronesque. Finally he enraged Slater by keeping a car, which was forbidden, and a mistress, which was insupportable. Mrs. Fleming was persuaded to remove him from Eton a term early to send him to study with a Colonel Trevor, who specialized in helping boys to "cram" for the Sandhurst entrance examination.
Mrs. Fleming's decision to send Fleming to the Royal Military College (now the Royal Military Academy) at Sandhurst rather than to Oxford was based partly on his academic mediocrity and partly on his evident need for discipline. She was anxious to see all of her sons settled in respectable positions in life, and she thought that a prestigious regiment would be the best place for him. After passing the entrance examination creditably, Fleming was enrolled as a gentleman cadet. Predictably, he responded well to the physical training and poorly to the discipline. He was finally caught climbing over the Sandhurst wall after an evening with a girl in Camberley and was severely disciplined.
This is a free page. This page contains 179 words. This
biography contains 10,909 words (approx. 36 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Ian (Lancaster) Fleming Access Pass.
