A Carol for the Dead - Characters

 

SPOILERS!!!

These are the characters in the book for future reference:

• Caroline (Carol) Sinclair is the main character in the book. Carol is married to Charles, who comes from a privileged background. Carol is beautiful and in the past men always went after her. When Carol married Charles, she left her past life behind, but happiness with Charles did not last. In two years of marriage she has been unable to produce a child, and that has caused problems in the couple. Charles decided to fight in Europe, and he and Carol did not part amicably. Carol is unhappy with the way she and Charles are, and when he goes missing, she is very worried. When Mrs Parker, her housekeeper, takes three orphan children, she reacts disagreeable, but the children gradually manages to gain her. In this book Carol also volunteers to be an ambulance driver. At the end of the book Carol is relieved when she learns that Charles is not dead but a prison of war in Germany. 
• Chief Inspector Clarence Hopcroft (Chops) is the police detective investigating the robbery. He and Carol have been good friends for years. Chops was married, but his wife Dora left him. Now he lives with his cat, Moriarty.
• Roger Trent (13) is the oldest child of the orphans that Carol takes in. 
• Susan Trent (12) is the second sibling that Carol takes in. Susan is sensitive and affectionate.
• Benjy Trent (9) is the youngest sibling. He is funny, determined, and he faces the three robbers who break into the house and defeat them, using his catapult. 
• DI Tommy Winslow is Chops' partner in the investigation. Winslow is thinking of enlisting, but Chops tells him that he needs to realise that he is lucky to have a family, and he is doing his bit in his police work. 
• Charles Sinclair is Carol's husband. He comes from a rich family and he is in the RAF. When the war broke out, his job involved training men, but when things worsened in his marriage, he decided to join action, which did not sit well with Carol. Charles's plane is shot down and he is taken prisoner. He tries to escape twice, but he is always caught. He is now in Colditz, an inscrutable prison in Germany. The surprise we get in the book is that another prisoner of war arrives at the prison, and he claims that he went to school with Charles, and the man claiming to be Charles Sinclair is not Charles. 
• Viscount Jason Sinclair is Charles's brother. He is much nicer than his wife. 
• Cressida Sinclair is Carol's sister-in-law, and she is quite disagreeable towards Carol. She disapproves of Charles marrying Carol, and when she learns about the three orphans, she keeps saying that Carol is putting the family to shame.
• Figgs (68) is the Sinclairs' butler.
• Mrs Parker is Carol's housekeeper. She is the one who decided to take the children in, and when Carol disapproves of having the children in her home, Mrs Parker stubbornly stands her ground.
• Mrs Givens is Carol's cook.
• Alastair Atwell is the vicar of a nearby village. The children meet him on the train, and the man goes to Ravenley to invite Carol to attend the services. We discover at the end of the book that he is a Nazi sympathiser and has a secret radio transmitter. 
• Simon Dean is Charles's best friend. He is also a pilot in the RAF. He was also in love with Carol, but in the end Charles was the one who got her. 
• Herbert Williams is the bank manager in Exeter. Some robbers threaten to kill his family as they hold them as hostages, and Herbert open the vault for the robbers.
• Fred Morrison is the nightwatchman at the bank, and during the robbery he was murdered. The police discover that he was involved with the robberies. Fred had been a prison officer after fighting the Great War, and he always complained that after fighting for the country, he had been left with nothing. 
• Group Captain John Warrall-Bill is the leader in the RAF.
• Dick Dalton is a reporter of the Exeter Gazette, and he has no scruples to publish any information he comes across. When he writes an article about the children staying with Carol Sinclair being witnesses to the car fleeing from the bank, he puts them at risk. 
• Terry Moss was the senior warden at the prison where Morrison worked. He turns out to be one of the bank robbers. 
• Gus Saxon is another of the robbers. He was also a prison warden.
• PUrdy is another robber. 
• Ravel Briggs is a poacher who works for the robbers, watching Ravensley for them.
• Ned Turnbull is the gamekeeper at Ravenley and he becomes friendly with the children. He used to be a poacher, but Mr Sinclair caught him and gave him a job. Ned lost his only son in the last war. 
• Mr Jonathan Darby is the schoolmaster. He is quite attractive and when Carol meets him, she feels attracted to him.
• Mrs Adams is the schoolmistress. 
• DI Basel Blaney is one of the detectives  of Scotland Yard who is sent to investigate the robbery.
• DS Ken Wilkins  is another detective of Scotland Yard.
• Superintendent Fergus Mc Daid is Chops' boss. He and Chops don't get along.
• Mr Elgood is in charge of the ambulance service which Carol volunteeers in.
• Mark and Diana Winslow are Tommy Winslow's children.
• Penny Winslow is Winslow's wife.
• May is an ambulance driver. 
• Vera Williams is Herbert's wife. She is made to phone her husband when some men hold her and her children hostages.
• Hauptmann Reinhold Eggers is the leading German officer in Colditz.
• Captain Pat Reid is the escape officer at Colditz.
• Lieutenant Michael Duncan is an officer held at Colditz.
• Captain Harry Elliott is an officer held at Colditz.
• Lieutenant Jock Hamilton-Baillie is an officer held at Colditz.
• Captain Rupert Barry is an officer held at Colditz.
• Lieutenant Tony Murray is an officer held at Colditz.
• Roderick Williams (17) is Herbert's son.
• Mathilda Williams (15) is Herbert's daughter. 
• Lord Peter Hardy (60) is an industrial magnate who throws a party at the beginning of the book, and Carol attends that party.
• Evelyn Hardy is Lord Hardy's wife.
• Freddie Hughes-Norton is a gossip columnist that Carol used to know in her heydays.
• Ralph Bolton is Charles's fellow pilot who dies during the raid.
• Danny White  is another pilot who also dies.
• Eric Fisher and Toby Hewitt are farm hands.
• Oberleutnant Ralf Ackerman is the leading officer in the first camp that Charles is locked in.
• Major Martin Fletcher (Fletch) is a prisoner in the first camp.
• James Hegarty is a navigator and a prisoner in the first camp.
• Captain Richard Cowdrey is another prison in the first camp.
• Feeney is the police artist who draws a portrait of one of the robbers, following the description of Roger.
• Cedric Nelson is the chief clerk at the bank.
• Norman Bennet is another clerk at the bank.
• Linda Geddis (22) is Mr Williams' secrtary.
• Henry Montagu is the edictor of the gazetter.
• Major JC Pannall is the governor at the prison where Morrison was a warden.
• Warden Clive Sheridan was Morrison's supervisor
• Light-Fingered Lennie is a thief that Chops interviews.
• Bert Tracy (Dick) is the desk sergeant.
• Constable Table is the policeman who is sent to watch over the children. 
• Cyril Thorpe was Morrison's neighbour. He claims that they didn't get on.
• Jack Finch is a bank robber that is in prison and Chops goes to interview.
• Lefty Cartwright runs the pub "The Gravediggers" where Morrison often went.
• Alf is the pub barman. 
• Sergent Justin Leclerc is a French officer who Charles met when he is captured for the second time, and they are both sent to Colditz.
• Big Jim Jefferies is a criminal running a gambling house.
• Ronnie Richardson is a criminal working for Big Jim Jefferies.
• Dora used to be Chops' wife.
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