Growing Up in a War - Bryan Magee (Sex in the Sicker)

[DavebytheSea]

My friend and erstwhile classmate, David Miller, has placed a brief critique of this, the second volume of Magee's autobiography, on the CHA website, so I shall not write another.

However, the closing pages of the book did send a frisson of prurient excitement down my spine. In his last two terms, AT A TIME WHEN I MYSELF WAS AT THE SCHOOL, it appears that he (Magee - not Miller)conducted a full-blooded romantic affair with one of the nurses in the Sicker. WOW!

This followed a broken leg playing rugby on a frozen pitch. Two weeks in the Sicker beginning with a splint, intimately and erotically fashioned in the dead of night, was followed by further unusual treatment ending with full-blown lovemaking between the sheets (apparently overheard by at least one other boy in the ward who, fascinated but shocked, told nobody for decades). The affair continued between blankets first in the open and later in deserted buildings in the dead of night.

I myself must have seen this pretty 33 year old nurse - I wonder if her eyes sparkled with her deadly secret. I wonder too whether any other boy in the ward was aware of the nightly games being played in the next bed but one. Most of all, I wonder just who "Jill" was - Magee, quite rightly preserves her anonymity throughout.

Of course, I knew of romantic attachments at Housie; they were commonplace, but they usually took place between older and younger boys - as Magee wryly puts it, faux de mieux. We also heard tales of escapades with Spanish maids, but I always assumed these were mythic tales of derring-do which lacked real substance. However, I may be wrong.

What tales have forum members to tell of illicit liaisons within the ring fence? Come on - disguise the names, if necessary, but now after half a century or more what can be the harm in archiving the history of those years.

[John Knight]

Yes, I lost my virginity to a lovely girl who was one of the maids in the Dinning Hall.
Her name was Josie, and she came from Crawley.
When I visit CH I go to the place where we used to meet.
I have never forgotten her and wonder how she got on in later life... I hope she is happy.

[englishangel]

Someone im my year had an affair with a guy who mowed the playing fields. I believe 'waccy baccy' was part of the deal too.

[midget]

Someone in my year had an "arrangement" with one of the stokers, which involved ordinary ciggies. I don't know for sure what her side of the deal was.

[Foureyes]

Don't know when the Spanish maids arrived. I remember Irish girls; the Eithne springs to mind. One afternoon about six of them leant out of their accommodation windows above the kitchens and brought a game of Asphalt Cricket to a complete standstill. They were reputed to swim in the pool at midnight, but weren't there when I put it to the test. What a missed opportunity! I got caught on the way back and beaten instead!

[Vonny]

There was definitely a teacher/pupil relationship going on at Hertford when I was there. Horsham - I also knew of one but I was sworn to secrecy - I knew both parties involved.

Myself? I did lose something along the old railway line between CH & Southwater

[DavebytheSea]

So far, most of us seem quite happy with this aspect of the CH curriculum - I wonder if it should be timetabled?

[John Knight]

Don't know when the Spanish maids arrived. I remember Irish girls; the Eithne springs to mind.

I remember that name... she had the most wonderful way of walking... what I would call deportment with added spice!!
Were you at CH at the same time as me? - If so then we are talking about the same lady.

[sejintenej]

Don't know when the Spanish maids arrived. I remember Irish girls; the Eithne springs to mind.

I remember that name... she had the most wonderful way of walking... what I would call deportment with added spice!!
Were you at CH at the same time as me? - If so then we are talking about the same lady.

At least one of the kitchen staff was Finnish and very blonde in my day! JR must remember her - and the Italian lothario who wrongly thought he had propretorial rights. As for the sicker staff - my lips are sealed but she was quite a bit less than 33!

As for "faux de mieux" it was tried on me in the junior lav-end - just the once! Not my style

[Foureyes]

Were you at CH at the same time as me? - If so then we are talking about the same lady.

Yes and yes. Sadly, she was not known to me in the Biblical sense

[John Knight]

Were you at CH at the same time as me? - If so then we are talking about the same lady.

Yes and yes. Sadly, she was not known to me in the Biblical sense

Wow!! - nearly 60 years ago... It just shows that good times remain in your memory for ever and things like 'double maths' and 'the mile' are soon forgotten.

[Angela Woodford]

Yes, I lost my virginity to a lovely girl who was one of the maids in the Dinning Hall.
Her name was Josie, and she came from Crawley.
When I visit CH I go to the place where we used to meet.
I have never forgotten her and wonder how she got on in later life... I hope she is happy.

What a lovely post, Mr Knight!!

I'm most intrigued by Mary's memory - I can only remember our Hertford groundsman as a permanantly cross man who endlessly went to and fro, to and fro over the Field on his noisy mower. This must then have had some erotic appeal for one of our schoolfellows!

But where? Surely not in the Pavilion - although there was that dark little cupboard where the cricket pads were stored... There was the little shed by the Art School of course, but it surely would have lacked room for much creative action. Do tell, Mary. After all, much time has passed.

Spanish and Irish Maids! Just imagine if we'd had young menservants about the place at Hertford!

By the time I'd left school, I'd never have had the confidence to attempt any sort of amorous experience. I'd never even held hands. Oh dear!

Munch

[cj]

There was definitely a teacher/pupil relationship going on at Hertford when I was there. Horsham - I also knew of one but I was sworn to secrecy - I knew both parties involved.

I remember all those shenanigans too.

We are talking here about activities that meant immediate expulsion when I was at CH - and it wasn't half a century ago!

[jhopgood]

I had no idea that Spanish maids had been at CH for some time. There were a couple in Barnes B during my time, but they seemed to play away from home. A Lamb B clarinet player springs to mind.
I had correspondence once from someone who reckoned his brother got expelled for getting a maid in the family way, but since it was during my time at CH and I have no recollection of the incidence, I took it with a pinch of salt. However, based on this thread, he was probably telling the truth.

[Great Plum]

There are a number of stories that I could tell, but I fear that not enough time has elapsed since I left really...

I can say, tha tnone of them were about me!