# Agatha Christie: “Captain Arthur Hastings, OBE” **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 30, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180 "2025-12-30T22:37:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/1 "2025-12-30T22:37:38Z")
That’s how Hastings describes himself in the foreword to _The ABC Murders_. Does Christie ever explain how Hastings got his OBE? Or is it just assumed it was something to do with his service in WWI? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/2 "2025-12-30T23:06:23Z")
I think the Novel “The Big Four” explains it to my satisfaction. He was working for the government. Sorta. But I don’t really believe it’s fully explained in known Christie novels. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/3 "2025-12-31T02:27:06Z")
An Order of the British Empire would not normally be awarded for military service or normal wartime activities, certainly not for the sorts of things that a captain might reasonably be expected to do. Crossing the Andes by frog, being an ad hoc adviser to the warlord ruler of an allied state, appointment to civil office in one of the colonies (and not fucking it up too much), starting a charity built around muscular Christianity, or deciphering a lost language were all extra-curricular things done by British military officers who could expect an OBE in the mail one day. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/4 "2025-12-31T03:02:43Z")
Isn’t that a requirement for being Detective Protagonist’s sidekick? An otherwise well respected and accomplished professional reduced to a gawping idiot in relation to the Great Detective’s stunning brilliance? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/5 "2025-12-31T03:12:02Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > An Order of the British Empire would not normally be awarded for military service or normal wartime activities, It was originally conceived as a civilian order, but a military division was added in 1918: > The order had been established primarily as a civilian award; in August 1918, however, not long after its foundation, a number of awards were made to serving naval and military personnel. Four months later, a ‘Military Division’ was added to the order, to which serving personnel would in future be appointed.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire#cite_note-9) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/6 "2025-12-31T06:36:27Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > An otherwise well respected and accomplished professional Hastings was never presented in that light. As a person, he was an amiable idiot, interested in fast cars and pretty girls. As a character, he was the usual useful foil sidekick. If he hadn’t befriended Poirot when he first came to the UK from Belgium, I doubt if Poirot would have kept him as hanger-on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/7 "2025-12-31T07:03:03Z")
So more Bertie Wooster than Doctor Watson. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/8 "2025-12-31T07:13:36Z")
Therein lies a possible dissertation… ---
**Author:** ![WalterBishop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@WalterBishop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WalterBishop)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/9 "2025-12-31T09:40:05Z")
It certainly can’t have been for anything which required competence. Hastings is probably the thickest detective sidekick in literary history. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/10 "2025-12-31T13:48:54Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Crossing the Andes by frog, being an ad hoc adviser to the warlord ruler of an allied state, appointment to civil office in one of the colonies (and not fucking it up too much), starting a charity built around muscular Christianity, or deciphering a lost language were all extra-curricular things done by British military officers who could expect an OBE in the mail one day. Are those all real examples? I’m curious how one would “cross the Andes by frog”, and the “muscular Christianity” sounds like it has a story behind it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/11 "2025-12-31T14:11:04Z")
‘Ripping Yarns’ is a documentary series that covers the work of British Gentlemen (civilian and military like) who attempted OBE-worthy acts in the late 19th-early 20th C. Crossing the Andes by frog is just one of thee topics they explored in depth. The series is written by a noted medieval scholar and re-enacted by one of the most eminent modern documentary travelarians. Heartily recommended to stiffen your upper lip. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/12 "2025-12-31T14:12:49Z")
See episode 5: > **[List of Ripping Yarns episodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ripping_Yarns_episodes)** > > Ripping Yarns is a television comedy series created by Michael Palin and Terry Jones and first broadcast on BBC 2 between 1976 and 1979. This is a list of the nine episodes forming the series. Although all were co-written by Palin and Jones, the latter appeared only in the first episode, Tomkinson's Schooldays. > The series is introduced by a bearded man in an opera cape (Palin) standing at some cliffs, who takes several tries to say the phrase "The follies of our youth are in retrospect gloriou... ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/13 "2025-12-31T14:14:51Z")
For muscular Christianity in English public schools: > **[Muscular Christianity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_Christianity)** > > Muscular Christianity is a religious movement that originated in England in the mid-19th century, characterized by a belief in patriotic duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, masculinity, and the moral and physical beauty of athleticism. > The movement came into vogue during the Victorian era as a method of building character in pupils at English public schools. It is most often associated with English author Thomas Hughes and his 1857 novel Tom Brown's School Days, as well as writers Charles Kingsley... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/14 "2025-12-31T15:18:45Z")
Britain awarded a ton of OBEs around the end of World War One (25,000 by 1921). It was a medal that any talented (or lucky) commoner or woman might receive. I suspect Christie was actually belittling Hastings by noting his OBE. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/15 "2025-12-31T18:34:20Z")
A lot of code words in that description. Wink wink, nudge nudge. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agatha-christie-captain-arthur-hastings-obe/1026180/16 "2025-12-31T20:49:00Z")
Free in specially marked boxes of Weetabix: Your own real OBE.