Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Does any one recall parents staying overnight at one of the above locations when visiting their offspring? One wonders what the occupants might have charged. Presumably this was only used by those parents who lived a long way from CH. Ken Mansell in his recent Victorian Era History mentions that in ...

Does the Grecians' Path embargo still apply? On my first day at CH I remember in my innocence walking back along it with my mother from Preparatory A to the Dining Hall before saying goodbye to her. Boys used to take short cuts across the Quad grass during the war at night time after choir practice....

Is there still such a publication issued? Copies used to be displayed in Day Rooms and other prominent places in the school. One of the rules related to the owning and driving of motor vehicles by pupils which believe it or not was permitted in the nineteen thirties and forties. I do not think it wa...

I remember that during my first year at CH my parents wanted me to wear Housie uniform on a number of occasions during the school holidays, i.e meeting relatives and going to church on Christmas morning, My worst moment was being in school uniform in Guildford waiting to meet a relative and seeing a...

Does anyone recall the precise date when the wearing of school uniform outside the school premises was discontinued? I believe that this was something to do with trouble in Horsham with the locals. When I left at the beginning of the 1948 school term I was issued with a "demob" kit, The on...

I am not sure if a previous email got through about the incident at Dorking |North. I have researched The Dorking Advertiser from 1948 to 1952 inclusive at the Colindale Newspaper Library for the end of term dates December, March/April and July with no success. The paper cannot help as they do not k...

Was there not a special note that when played by the organ vibrated in the Head Master's stall at the far end of the Chapel? I remember Corks mentioning this at Choir Practice once.
How often, if ever, it was done when the Head was there I do not know.
Chris Bartlett

R.N.H. Bulmer Coleridge A House captain on his last day at school in 1946 organised a silence after the Grace on the last morning instead of the usual cheer. It was soon interrupted by
loud laughter. He also shook hands with every boy in the school., table by table.
Chris Bartlett.

There was another occasion when some one on the last morning of term rang the getting up bell
one hour early . I believe that the Hall Warden Sam (JNB) Sergent, Peele "A" Senior Housemaster
cycled up to the Dining Hall at the wrong time. Who I wonder was the culprit?
Chris Bartlett

In the early nineteen fifties c 1952-53 there was a famous occasion when one Grecian mimed
the Grace at lunchtime in Dining Hall the words being spoken by another boy who crouched down
between his feet.
Chris Bartlett

Does any one know when the above shop closed? I remember walking there on a Sunday morning to buy newspapers. Did not the CH Post Office also sell papers at one time? In Coleridge A we had The Times and the News Chronicle delivered to the day room.
Chris Bartlett

Am I right in thinking that following the incident at Dorking North station when an egg was thrown through the Station Master's office window that the school changed the menu on the last morning
to corned beef? I believe that this happened c. 1952 /53.
Chris Bartlett

Although passenger services between Horsham and Guildford ceased in July 1965 it is still possible to travel by direct train between Guildford and Reading. I remember that the Housey special always left at an early hour , about 7.30 a.m. on the last day of term. I do not recall that any masters ever...

How many memories are there of travelling to and from the school by train? The Housey Special between CH and Victoria ran for many years from 1902 . In my day for some reason it was always routed via Dorking and Sutton on the way up and returned via East Croydon and Three Bridges. Does anyone know w...

Kit Aitken and Corks certainly came into the dormitories and lav ends. I remember Corks smoking his pipe in the dormitory and once he must have put it down briefly as some boys in Coleridge A picked it up and started puffing away much to his annoyance.
Chris Bartlett