People/Characters Colonel Pickering

(Fictitious character) Colonel Pickering is a wealthy linguist specializing in Sanskrit. He travel to England to meet Henry Higgins, fortunately arriving just before Higgins sets our for India to meet him. He moves into Higgins' house. A kindlier man than Higgins, when Eliza Doolittle turns up wanting to Higgins to teach her genteel English, he challenges him to make good on his boast that he could teach her to speak in such a posh manner that she could be presented as a lady at an embassy ball.

The character first appeared in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which was adapted into the musical My Fair Lady, and has crossed into other works, such as a mystery series by D. E. Ireland.