Search found 60 matches

by alterblau
Sat May 10, 2014 11:03 pm
Forum: Stories, Reminiscing & Teacher/Pupil Memories
Topic: Edward Malins
Replies: 27
Views: 14474

Re: Edward Malins

In the writings about EG Malins so far, only his military, equestrian and intellectual qualities have been mentioned. There is more to add! I was in the school Colts (under 16 rugby team) in 1954 and 1955 and our coaches then were Kit Aitken and Gad Malins.
by alterblau
Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:09 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Shared Senior Drum Major
Replies: 3
Views: 1811

Re: Shared Senior Drum Major

Many congratulations Tom and Henry!

I cannot help you, but please explain what “switching coats” means to an old, old OB, who long ago auditioned unsuccessfully to become a drum major?
by alterblau
Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:10 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Smoking by CH pupils
Replies: 17
Views: 5643

Smoking by CH pupils

In the thread ‘The Manual School’, the suggestion was made of setting up a new thread about Smoking. Although I never smoked at CH, I’ll start it. The area behind the Manual School was a favourite haunt for smokers, so the Manual School thread included plenty of references to smoking. But what intri...
by alterblau
Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:07 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: The Matron's Inspection
Replies: 18
Views: 5433

Re: The Matron's Inspection

Each junior had a bath once a week One result of the unavailability of a daily bath, meant that it was a great privilege at CH. So when a monitor I (and very many others) indulged in a bath virtually every night. That’s something that has stayed with me for over 60 years. When convenient I still ta...
by alterblau
Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:51 pm
Forum: Stories, Reminiscing & Teacher/Pupil Memories
Topic: Michael Cherniavsky
Replies: 93
Views: 52882

Re: Michael Cherniavsky

Until the widespread rise of Redbrick there were few viable university options for Blues who could not get some sort of Oxbridge scholarship or exhibition to sustain them. CH therefore tried to get everybody through school cert or, as it became, GCE, and then to place those with no hope of Oxbridge...
by alterblau
Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:15 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Pranks in Chapel
Replies: 21
Views: 9567

Pranks in Chapel

Following Geoffrey Cannon’s recent, excellent suggestion in the thread “Grace”, that the current topic be added, here’s a contribution. One Grecian, of course sitting in the back row, never put any coins the Collection Bag, as it was passed from hand to hand. His technique was to make an appropriate...
by alterblau
Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:45 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: CH Masters as Authors
Replies: 14
Views: 4563

Re: CH Masters as Authors

Bizarre. There was I, a Maths Grecian, and never had any idea that Wm A had written a textbook.
Perhaps postwarblue’s comment is not so bizarre. The very best (maths and other) teachers often did not use a text book and W. Armistead was one of them
by alterblau
Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:43 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: CH Masters as Authors
Replies: 14
Views: 4563

Re: CH Masters as Authors

Perhaps postwarblue’s comment is not so bizarre. The very best (maths and other) teachers often did not use a text book and W. Armistead was one of them.
by alterblau
Mon Oct 14, 2013 7:42 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Swimming
Replies: 9
Views: 2720

Re: Swimming

Swimming sessions that I remember were of several types. 1. There were extra sessions, typically before breakfast on summer weekends, with a house master volunteering to be responsible for the bathers. Not all house masters did this, mine never. 2. There were compulsory swimming lessons for those wh...
by alterblau
Sun Oct 13, 2013 8:52 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Reading to the dormitory
Replies: 74
Views: 20930

Re: Reading to the house

In a sense, “Reading to the House”, included House “Duty”. This was the evening spiritual readings in the dayroom on the 6 days without Evening Chapel, after first prep and just before juniors went to bed. In my house only the house captain read and one of the two housemasters always attended. The “...
by alterblau
Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:11 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: World War 2, CH Teachers, etc
Replies: 24
Views: 10513

Re: World War 2, CH Teachers, etc

by michael scuffil » Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:51 pm Was not Mr Tod also from Marlborough? I seem to recall David Jesson-Dibley saying he was there with Louis MacNeice. Did we have any Etonian, Harrovian or Wykehamist masters? I don't know about masters who attended the above schools, but Ian Sutherland (c...
by alterblau
Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:16 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Ballroom and other dancing at Horsham
Replies: 19
Views: 5198

Ballroom and other dancing at Horsham

About 50 years ago there were informal ballroom dancing classes for senior boys (Grecians only?) who wanted to learn to dance. Volunteer females sometimes attended the classes to assist and to dance the women’s steps. I think the senior groundsman’s wife and a few others, like young trainee dieticia...
by alterblau
Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:55 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Rugby/games jerseys
Replies: 6
Views: 1553

Rugby/games jerseys

So what about rugby/games jerseys? In the 50s and 60s every house had a different colour scheme (2 colours and varying patterns, but always horizontal stripes). I can’t remember most of them, but am sure Thornton A had odd colours - orange and purple, in equal stripes, about 2 in. wide. I’m less sur...
by alterblau
Mon Sep 09, 2013 8:28 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Punishments at CH
Replies: 80
Views: 29177

Re: Punishments at CH

Although beating (i.e. caning on the bottom) was generally accepted in the decades after the second world war, I agree that it probably reflected something else on the part of the beater, as indicated by Michael, who wrote; I remember Pongo Littlefield in Barnes A as being a beater with the cane for...
by alterblau
Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:15 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Masters' Nicknames
Replies: 76
Views: 21267

Re: Masters' Nicknames

There is another possible origin for Windy Whitfield’s nickname. His predecessor as junior housemaster in Barnes B was Windy McCracken and so unsurprisingly Whitfield inherited the nickname, perhaps because of the alliteration. McCracken had acquired the name after an occasion when he released flatu...