Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Sic transit gloria mundi.

From time to time I am reminded of a history essay topic that was set by M T Cherniavsky (aka Cherny) for his Upper Fourth A form in 1956. I have no recollection of what I wrote in response, nor what a pertinent response might be, but I remember the essay title very clearly. The title was: If Consta...

In a traditional old apartment in the back streets of Vienna, Austria -- shades of the Third Man and Harry Lime! I was returning by car from a trip down to the southern end of the Yugoslavia coast and made a detour via Vienna to look up some Austrian friends (met a couple of years earlier in a youth...

The last issue of Cambridge University alumni magazine has an article about enthusiasts in the audio recording field that have been associated with the University. David Robinson (Pembroke College, 1959) is mentioned as an early pioneer, who subsequently went to the BBC. Interestingly, he was associ...

I remember this area well from the 1950s - often used to run and walk through there, with easy access from a path starting near the station. I never came across anything such as you described, nor heard any mention of it. However, in my day the area was generally under the say-so of the CCF and it c...

In these difficult times it's good to have around us a few elements of certainty and continuity. Four days ago it was 60 years from my leaving CH, just before Christmas 1960. I feel it's remarkable that we can maintain such links for so long. The Old Blues on-line Carol Concert of 18 Dec is well wor...

Another expense arose for monitors. It was payment to a swab. That too was about 30 shillings a term. I had one friend from a very poor family who told me frankly that his parents could not afford this additional thirty bob. He would have had to forgo having a swab, he added, if it were not for a m...

I was in Maine A shortly after your date (1953-60), but I don't recall any local rules similar to what you describe. Of course at that time Ma A had much more easy-going housemasters (Senior HM Tod/Barker, Junior HM Jesson-Dibley/Whitfeld) than La A under ALJ. Pocket money: I couldn't remember the a...

This looks like the Charles M E Hazlewood listed in the 1997 Who's Blue. BB/LB/MaA 1978-85. Organ scholar Keble College Oxford and subsequent distinguished musical career largely as conductor/music director. After my time I'm afraid, but he ought to have quite a wide network outside and inside the O...

David Redshaw should be thanked for bringing these issues up again. I agree generally with his thoughts and with much of the comment posted in response. It's good to keep these concerns alive. I watched the 2020 ''Virtual Speech Day'' video made available on the CHOBA Web site yesterday (in my view ...

I wonder whether any forum members have connections of any sort going back to the "Pilgrim Fathers", who emigrated from England to America in 1620 (which is only 68 years after the founding of CH). The 400th anniversary of this event is coming up. The specific date that I shall be celebrat...

I can offer some memories of this, being one of the earliest people to take advantage of it. Some of this has already been covered by the other posters, but here's my detailed recollection. I believe that the option to serve in the Public Service Group (PSG), as it was called, came into being at the...

Incidentally, some of those in the RAF Section at that time may well have made their first flight, as I did, in a 2-seater De Haviland Chipmunk trainer on an RAF Section Field Day at White Waltham RAF station near Maidenhead. Anybody else who had that experience may like to know that, if they flew ...

I don't have the answer, but I have wondered about this myself and was intending to make a post about it (I assume that we are talking about the same thing and same time frame: the CCF (RAF Section)'s glider, about 1959-60. Postings about Pongo (E A littlefield) in recent days reminded me of this is...

Pongo: I doubt very much whether he had been an RAF Spitfire pilot in WWII. I don't think that he had the dash and flexibility required for that. I was in the RAF section at CH, but never heard anything like that. As I recall, the belief generally was that he had served in the War in the RAF in some...