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We learn that Rev Philip Stimcoe was a 'querister' at Winchester College and a 'servitor' at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was ordained in the Church of England.
He lives at The Copenhagen Academy, 7 Delamere Terrace, Falmouth and he is married to the niece of the Hon Sir Alexander O'Brien, Admiral of the White, KCB, of Roscommon in Ireland.
Philip Stimcoe appears to have started life with every advantage, but through drink has been reduced to teaching and almost to penury. By the time Harry Brooks arrives he is virtually a passenger, with Captain Branscome doing the real teaching and Mrs Stimcoe running the establishment, largely on the basis of credit. With the eventual absence of Branscome, it must have quickly failed.
The academy maintains itself through the efforts of Mrs Stimcoe who browbeats local shops, tradesmen and doctor into providing goods and services in the vain hope of future payment, even with the knowledge that no future payment will arrive. Her character, strong in the face of endless humiliations, gives her a certain standing in the town. It is greatly to her credit that the boarders are well fed and have a certain regard for her. The Revd and Mrs Stimcoe are comic-tragic figures.
Harry Revel and Poison Island show us wealthy people and people who know poverty; and poverty is hardest for those who were not born to it, as with the Stimcoes and Captain Branscome.