House Notes

[michael scuffil]

There was a bit of a sport of writing 'inappropriate' things for the House Notes in The Blue in the hope that they would get past the censor and add to the gaiety of the nation. Usually they didn't. However I do remember two.

In 1962, the LambB House Notes contained the following: 'We were sorry to say goodbye to A, B, C, D, and E. F also left.'

And the PeeleA House Notes in 1961 (I think) contained the cryptic 'quote', a propos of nothing at all: 'Brightest light of our declining years, burgeoning ever verdant.' This was an acronym.

[Kit Bartlett]

House Notes contents were always of course somewhat pedestrian with lists of arrivals and departures together with news of visiting Old Blues and Scholarship and House Trophy achievements. Tributes were usually paid to departing Housemasters. Occasionally In House jokes were permitted.
With the passage of time mention of all pupils by their surname only disappeared and it often became the practice to refer to boys by their nickname. I remember that this drew complaints from various sources. Perhaps there is now a happy medium.
On a slightly different topic candidates entering for the Lamb Essay Prize were required to write under a pseudonym. One boy (in Barnes B actually) gave an obscene name as pronounced.
Whether he got away with it I do not know.
Chris Bartlett

[J.R.]

I vaguely remember reading house-notes, trying to find one or two juicy snippets.

Sadly, the years have diminished my recollections.

[jhopgood]

Just found the September 1957 Blue, reporting on summer 1956. As it was a couple of years before I arrived at CH, I recognised none of the Barnes B names, so I looked at the Prep where there was more chance of recognition.
I discovered that Zienko (later in Barnes B) swallowed a safety pin which was extracted in Redhill Hospital, and that Chickenpox was an Irish import.
Browsing through the magazine I see that Barnes B kept the Purcell Kenyon Rose Bowl for the fourth year in succession, but I have no idea what they got it for, and wonder if it still exists.
In sports, under the Colts cricket, a certain Snow had become a good all rounder and along with Archer, was an opening bowler. Archer is supposed to have been the steadier of the two, always bowling well! Snow was top scorer in 3 of the 8 games played, and had best bowling statistics in only 2, with Archer having better bowling figures in 5. Obviously Snow improved as he got older.
In the Old Blue section, Kirby is congratulated on his MBE, the Old Blue Dramatic Society performed at Cripplegate Theatre, the OB swimming club lost to CH, and the CH cycling club was in formation.
It seems that the Blue really is a document of record and a mine of CH information to those interested.

[Requested Removal 18]

I remember that the Blue was edited by Richard McCall during my Junior Years. Senior House Notes were always a bit of a laugh, containing much innuendo and nicknames. When I moved to the Senior House, Tim Bryant took over editorial duties and the House Notes became a much more sober affair, with no use of nicknames permitted and the in-jokes & innuendo disappeared. Shame, really.

[michael scuffil]

Browsing through the magazine I see that Barnes B kept the Purcell Kenyon Rose Bowl for the fourth year in succession, but I have no idea what they got it for, and wonder if it still exists.

I think it was for singing, but someone may correct me.

There was an Outlook in c. 1961 with a pair of quite amusing spoof House Notes from two fictitious houses (Leigh Hunt A and B -- they were fictitious then), one hearty and one arty. Probably based on Mid A and Mid B at the time.

[J.R.]

I'm sure all my copies of the Blue must have been dispensed with in the various house-moves my Mother and I made.

Shame now, really - I'd love to go through them again !!

[jhopgood]

The CH Club room had bound copies of all blues, right back to the first. I think there was also a copy in the library.
Whether they still continue this practice, I have no idea.

[Kit Bartlett]

I have always kept my copies of The Blue since I entered the school in 1941.
I have also acquired a nearly complete run of the magazine since 1890 from surplus copies held in the CH office in London plus a number from the son of a deceased Old Blue with whom I worked in London Transport. I once picked up three bound volumes from the nineteen twenties. the property of an Old Blue named R.S. Symons, at a secondhand book fair in Tenterden for fifty pence each back in the nineteen seventies. What a bargain!
This has proved very useful for compiling my various articles and media jotting notes published over the years.
What I do not possess very many of are the Alphabetical School Lists over the years. The school Museum have a fair number of these dating back to c 1932.
Chris Bartlett