Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

How many bicycles are used at C.H. these days compared with days gone by ? I remember various members of staff used them on a regular basis of which the late Reggie Dean was a well known example. He lived on the Worthing Road, at Horsham., near the railway bridge, so would not have had too far to co...

Tommy Hoskins was in Peele B 1917-24, He succeeded Dr. G.E. Friend in 1946 as School Doctor as it was called then. One of his earliest tasks in his new post was to eat all school meals in Dining Hall as served to the boys. This was to test the adequacy of the diet. He sat at the Coleridge B dining t...

The School Infirmary also had a wireless, probably located in the Day room there. I recall Dr. Tommy Scott putting on the Saturday evening Football news in 1947 after a special request by yours truly . This was transmitted to the Ward in which I was located. Communication was still made by telegram....

The Masters' Garages must have been built before the Second World War as they were destroyed by the Flying Bomb in 1944. This implies that a fair number of the staff must have owned cars in the nineteen thirties. I do remember listening to the Football results in the Coleridge B (not Coleridge A) Da...

I remember that a boy J.C. Longmuir in Coleridge A had his own home made wireless in one of the Coleridge A Changing Rooms and we all listened to the D Day landings broadcast in June 1944. One of the junior House Masters also had a wireless in his study which had a connection into the day room. I am...

It would be interesting purely for historical reasons to find out the dates when the following were first used at CH. House Radios, Television sets, either in Houses or a private residence. There was one in the Masters' Common Room at the time of the 1953 Coronation I know. Telephones. What was the ...

One subject at a debate in the early nineteen fifties was the motion "that this House would rather be married to Mrs. Beeton than Ava Gardner". I forget the result.
I suppose one could adapt this to present day celebrities . Any suggestions as to suitable contrasts ?

There were certainly obstructions laid across Big Side during WW2 known as barricades. The Sports field to the north of the Tuck shop was ploughed up and used to grow vegetables. When the Japanese overran Malaya in 1942 and there was a consequent shortage of rubber the school were instructed to save...

Dick Crosland also appeared in R,A.F. uniform as a member of the CCF or as it was called then the JTC. How did all these masters obtain the necessary training and qualifications to do this I wonder ? There was also the CH Home Guard in which the Headmaster HLO Flecker was a prominent member with the...

Kit Aitken lost a leg in Normandy. shot by a sniper, He was initially wounded badly and then gangrene set in and it had to be amputated. I remember him giving a talk to the CCF on the incident in Big School. Reggie Dean and Jack Massen were not called up in W W 2 as they remained on the teaching sta...

Correction to my previous entry.
He joined the C.H. staff in January 1941. fell ill in the latter part of the term and left temporarily, Returned for the summer term but was again taken ill and left for a post at Repton School at the end of the school year.

The above named was a Junior House Master in Prep, B for one term in the summer of 1941. He had to leave because of a serious illness. I have a number of his books and read most of the others. He was a keen cricket statistician and specialised in unusual happenings in first class cricket. Apart from...

I remember "Teddy" Edwards giving a talk to the class about accents and asking different boys to say a few words so that he could tell from which part of the country they came. I only recall two accents of the many that were given both of which he got right. One was broad Berkshire and the...

I spotted his death in the Daily Telegraph last week and advised the CH office.

Assuming that there is a permissible market for Nazi memorabilia I wonder how much a signed photograph of Hitler would fetch at auction.