Although this incident followed several other less serious problems, Douglas escaped expulsion by the skin of his teeth, and at the age of 16 was transferred to another house and housemaster. (He had a very poor relationship with his former housemaster.) However the move proved successful and the remainder of his school career was relatively incident-free.“At the end of the term Douglas asked permission from the major in charge of the Corps to take home an old and useless rifle from the armoury, to clean and restore it and return it in January. Permission was refused. Whereupon Douglas broke into the armoury, removed the weapon, and took it home. Unknown to Douglas the War Office made a check every four years on the school armoury. A few days after the vacation began, Mrs Douglas found two policemen at her front door, inquiring about the theft of a weapon. Douglas appeared, and showed them to his room where the rifle was laid out on his table, each part newly cleaned and oiled. He was summoned back to school, interviewed by his housemaster and then by the War Office major and the headmaster.”
Keith Douglas 1920-1944, by Desmond Graham, (OUP, London, 1974, 295pp)