Member of faculty at Cambridge University; the 1939 Hercules Furens Visiting Lecturer at University of the Funicular.
His article ("Some Calm Observations on a Few Lettered Tiles and Old Bones"), published in the June 1940 issue of Sherds, challenged the lettered tiles found that identified Floradora "were only part of an inscription which, when intact, read FL[AVIVS] OR[GVLVS] ADORA[T] [PVELLAM]" [St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, 81-2].
Later authored an article ("How Would You Know?") in the Times Literary Supplement as retaliation to Dr. Plitheroe's article ("The Brothel as Sanctuary ") in the journal, Plethora.
T. Oates presumably alludes to Titus Oates (1649–1705), central figure in the Popish Plot of 1678.
An auger is a tool, like a drill bit, used used for boring holes in wood or ice; presumably a frostauger would be used on the ice.
Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules) is the title of a play written by Seneca, itself based on an earlier text by Euripides.
A funicular is a type of cable railway; this roughly translates the school as the University of the cable car.
Sherds are the broken pieces of pottery that mean so much to archaeologists, which sounds like an appropriate journal for antiquarians.
As for the Latin phrase, we had to wonder how many people would be able to translate the text. Bowen feels it wouldn't be likely to stop anybody who had a couple of years of high-school Latin. "In those days quite a few people did, not just the ones who went to Catholic high schools." He translates the phrase as "Flavius the Proud adores a girl."
