On Feb 7 , 1910 , the ‘Prince of Abyssinia and his delegation’ visited the British naval vessel HMS Dreadnought . The following image was clicked while on board . Just identify the bearded figure on the extreme left .
The bearded figure is VIRGINIA WOOLF .
This was a hoax which was pulled off by ace prankster Horace de Vere Cole in 1910 and he tricked the crew of HMS Dreadnought into taking himself and his friends for a group of Abyssinian royals . Virginia Woolf (then Virginia Stephen) was part of this group . The hoax gave immense publicity to the versatile Bloomsbury group . The punishment to the pranksters – a symbolic tap on the buttocks a la British boarding schools !!
Cracked by Sreeram and Pranietha .
Virginia Woolf!
Virginia Woolf