Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

J.R. wrote: ↑Thu Sep 27, 2018 10:08 am Some people just have a natural mathematical brain. Col B certainly had one during my time. Freaky will remember him I'm sure.

Not the proverbial Dicko?

. No corporal punishment now but has hooliganism and bad behaviour got any worse as a result since we were there? . As you rightly point out, we certainly know about some of the abusive behaviour of the teachers. In answer to your question I reckon the answer is yes. Not necessarily in terms of num...

Late 50s/early 60s rock 'n' roll in the UK is fabulously and humourously remembered in one of those BBC2 Arena documentaries on Joe Meek ('Telstar' and other hits). Also the book 'Brown Sauce' which is Joe Brown's hilarious take on some of the figures of that era. As well as his own hits with The Br...

Corporal punishment was rife in my day. And it was administered in a way that was not required for basic 'chastisement' as I was told by the former Chair of the Council Guy Perricone. It was brutal and savage and often for pure sexual gratification. Newsome was renowned for it. Bob Sillett, that's ...

In reply to Sejintenej, my memory of seeing Col A doing morning PT was when the Juniors were being taken by "Elvis" Carter. Carter was a rock 'n' roll fan and always had an enviable supply of the latest chart singles which our guys in Col B would sometimes borrow. On this occasion he had c...

Yes, my recollection of Fish is that he was rather a kindly man. I remember his patience when teaching me to swim. His son Simon was my generation in Prep and Upper. Perhaps I remember kindly people from back then because they weren't all!

I cannot recall CMES EVER visiting Col B, or hearing of him ever entering any house come to that. I think he was too aloof for that sort of task. He came to see one of our house plays in Col B once, in about 1958. Maybe he was doing them one by one down the avenue. I was onstage and remember seeing...

. It was only much later in life that I discovered rock climbing and snow and ice climbing, the activity that I was physically designed to do. That wasn't on the menu then. Do they have an indoor climbing wall these days? We used to climb at Stone Farm Rocks every couple of weekends - difficult san...

I quite enjoyed games but was on the small side and had poor eyesight. These factors were not taken into account in the 50s. If you dropped a pass you still got shouted at. Slacking was not an option. In Col B we first had Buck and then Fryer. As PWB has recorded elsewhere you counted for more with ...

I was in Prep B at the time John, and Gregnut was from Prep A but depping for one of our masters that evening. The two Jonahs constituted Prep A plus Gregnut. We had Pink, Eagle and Keep, but of course Pink, the fiddler, had gone when you arrived. Mr Keep was always nicknamed Flappers because his ea...

My own experience of Gregory. I was in the Prep houses when Gregory was there. He was presiding over our dorm one evening when one young lad had committed some minor misdemeanor. He was due for the slipper. He came out of the lav-ends wearing just his jim-jam bottoms. Gregnut (as we called him) bent...

I'm aghast reading some of this stuff. I was at CH from 1952 to 1960 and I fondly imagined that the worst of bullying and abuse was being consigned to history after I left, especially when the school went co-ed. But I find that no, some things seem to have got worse for some people. I never had my o...

Does your reverence for the old journalism and its "fact-based reportage" include episodes like the Daily Mail's "Zinoviev letter" of 1926 which was a fabrication designed to forge a false connection between Soviet Russia and the British Labour party? And how about Lord Beaverbro...

When I was writing for the music papers in the 70s we were mostly influenced by the "new journalism" coming from America, particularly in Rolling Stone and Creem magazine from Detroit. Whether it was new journalism, postmodern, or just a load of fevered old cobblers off the top of our head...

Regarding the above submission, I still find it astonishing that people are agonising over their time at CH by trying to balance the abuse with the good times they remember. They shouldn't have to experience the abuse, or the risk of it, full stop. Every time we come back to that same problem in my ...