John Mainwaring John Mainwaring John Mainwaring (1724–1807) was an English theologian and the first biographer of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel in any language. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and became rector of the parish of Church Stretton, Shropshire, and, later professor of Divinity at Cambridge. In 1760, one year after Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey he published anonymously a biography 'Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel'. More than half of this biography is focused on the years before 1712, when Handel moved to London. Therefore, it is supposed he received information from
Captain Mainwaring that he is actually of working class origins and his father was a heavy drinker, as is his profligate brother, Barry, who is a travelling salesman specialising in novelty toys. He has many redeeming qualities: he is essentially brave, loyal and industrious, generally kind-hearted beneath the bluster and unfailingly patriotic. Mainwaring believes in following rules and orders, sometimes to a ludicrous degree and is class-conscious and a snob. Being educated at the local Grammar School - as a scholarship student - he considers himself middle class and looks down on anyone he considers beneath him, which may be because he