Alaric Pendlebury-Davenport, Duke of Dunstable, was at Eton and Cambridge. A large, stout, bald-headed man with an unpleasantly loud voice, jutting nose, prominent eyes and a bushy white moustache of the type favored by regimental sergeant majors and walruses, which he is always blowing at, causing it to leap like a rocketing pheasant. Large outstanding ears like those on a Greek amphora. Uninvited guest at Blandings in Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Service With a Smile, A Pelican at Blandings. An opinionated, arbitrary, autocratic resident of Wiltshire, where his standing among his neighbors is roughly that of a shark at a bathing resort; considers everybody he encounters to be "potty." Uncle to Horace Pendlebury-Davenport, Ricky Gilpin, and Linda Gilpin, his court-appointed ward in A Pelican at Blandings. In Uncle Fred in the Springtime displays tendency to destroy rooms with a poker when angry. Nervous of fire; invites himself to Blandings in A Pelican at Blandings following a fire at his Wiltshire house. A onetime suitor of Constance Keeble, who continues to show a certain fond tolerance of him (Alaric ended their engagement because her father refused to meet his terms in the matter of a dowry). Once tried to get himself elected to the old Pelican Club, was heavily blackballed. Long a widower, once married to a rich girl who was the daughter of one of those rich chaps up North who make cups and basins and things; her death left him twice a millionaire but always on the lookout to become richer.

• Uncle Fred in the Springtime
• Service With a Smile
• A Pelican at Blandings