I was told at an earlier date that "headmaster's beatings" were in fact administered by the school sergeant (Fielden) under the HM's direction. That may have been the case under Flecker.
Then I wondered: Was it Fielden or was it Whistler? In fact, what was the difference.
When I arrived, there were two uniformed characters known as "Sergeant", the abovementioned Fielden and Whistler (I think it was Whistler, but I may be confusing him with his successor). Fielden ran the post-office and closed the chapel door on Sundays. I've no idea what else he did. Whistler was much more active. He took school drills, assisted at gym and swimming, went around the classrooms in the morning with the attendance list, roared out the commands at dinner parade. He left during my first year, allegedly because he couldn't get on with the new headmaster (Seaman). His successor was I think called Fletcher (tho I may have them the wrong way round). Fletcher(?) can be seen in this picture
, (on the left, next to the SG) which illustrates yet another function. He took over the gym and school-drill functions (which he said were incompatible). The attendance-list function was abolished, and the dinner-parade function (after briefly being exercised by the SG) was replaced by a series of drum-rolls.These were the "civilian" sergeants, not to be confused with the CCF sergeant-majors.
