The chances that faux pas was deliberate are right up near 100% and that just shows the character of some elders. as I was reading your account i pictured one particular elder from my old hall as he was exactly the type to pull that type of shit and did do on several occasions. Yes he would have been one with prurient interest and a huge ego to match it. The kind of man he is can be summed up in the fact he was lining up his next wife while his current one was dying of terminal cancer and married her 3 months after the funeral.
Ass hole.
I wouldnt want to be an elder in Barry right now and to think I very nearly moved there 10 years ago while in and who knows my path may well have been radically different and my name may even have been on the list of trustees by now.