Trevor
Trevor is the new kid on the block as far as the Wormsley Common Gang are concerned. He is unhappy with his life - his parents, once affluent, are now experiencing hard times - and he is filled with adolescent rebellion. Although he has joined the gang he seems separate from the boys, preoccupied with philosophical principals and thoughts that the others could not possibly understand. His strong silence impresses the other boys, who consider him tough and menacing. He becomes temporary leader of the gang when he finds out from his father that the owner of the old house on the corner will be away for the holiday weekend, and comes up with a plan to destroy the house in his absence. Trevor doesn't just want to ransack the home; he wants to wreck it all together.
Trevor claims that he doesn't hate Mr Thomas, although it's hard to understand this given that he has just made him homeless and burned his life savings, but he is trying to make a stand against an older generation he considers to be materialistic.
Blackie
Blackie is leader of the gang and although he becomes temporarily subordinate to T, having been out-voted about the destruction of Mr Thomas' house, he regains leadership by the end of the story. He is a team player, and cares about the future of the gang. He is concerned that T has his own agenda and doesn't share the same vision as the rest of the boys do Although he is momentarily jealous that T wins the boys' support against him so easily, he concedes that destroying the house will be a far more prestigious statement than any of the pranks he has come up with. He realizes that he isn't actually jealous of T, but in fact respects him, and demands loyalty to both T and the mission of destruction from the other boys.
Mr Thomas
"Old Misery" is given his nickname by the boys in the gang who find the senior grumpy and irascible. He leads a pretty solitary life, seemingly by design. As a younger man he worked in construction which is why the destruction of his house was even more offensive to him; the home was over two hundred years old and had withstood two world wars. He is proud of the house. He is a typical Englishman who believes strongly in the social class structure of the nation, respecting the seniority of the upper classes. He deeply resents the change in culture that is enabling younger people to begin to question this. The saddest thing about Mr Thomas' life is that he actually likes the boys when he sees them playing across his fence, not realizing that he is an object of their derision.
Truck Driver
The truck driver who unwittingly pulls the last parts of the house down with his truck seems to find humor in the chaos of the situation, laughing all the more when Mr Thomas becomes understandably outraged and upset. This reaction aligns him with the boys, rather than with the other adult in the story, suggesting that many adults in the working classes shared their disdain for the existing class system.
Mike
Mike is at the intersection of childhood and adolescence. He is one of the youngest boys in the gang and not yet concerned with teen angst or resentment. He desperately wants to be taken seriously by the older boys and is therefore very happy to be the one who warns the others about Mr Thomas' early return home; he is also the boy who manages to lock him in the outside toilet.
