Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Prep B 16, Col A 40
and that's 50 years later.

Col B 31


( Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I can finally put mine on here )

.... and I was Col B 30, so in the olden days, our beds would have been next to eachother !

Barnes A 19
Thornton A/B 11

J.R. wrote:.... and I was Col B 30, so in the olden days, our beds would have been next to eachother !

I bl**dy well hope not!.

2:38 (they had to add it in for me, for some reason, so I didn't have a locker or anything ... Don't all go aaah at once!)

I think it must be a freaky thing with me, because I can even remember my brother's and he left in 1975!

Leigh Hunt B 34
Mid B 1

Ma A 25


which suddenly came back to me, having been lost for decades.

carong wrote:2:38 (they had to add it in for me, for some reason, so I didn't have a locker or anything ... Don't all go aaah at once!)

I think it must be a freaky thing with me, because I can even remember my brother's and he left in 1975!

Leigh Hunt B 34
Mid B 1

I was about to reply to this mentioning both my predecessor and my brother's number and predecessor, but remembered that I had already posted on this.
What I can't remember is how they allocated House numbers. Was it as simple as ordering numerically those available and then giving them out in alphabetical order?
My memory bank does not seem to have that detail available for my year.
Given that most people these days seem to leave at the same age, this must mean that the same numbers come up every few years.

jhopgood wrote:What I can't remember is how they allocated House numbers. Was it as simple as ordering numerically those available and then giving them out in alphabetical order?
My memory bank does not seem to have that detail available for my year.
Given that most people these days seem to leave at the same age, this must mean that the same numbers come up every few years.

Can't speak for any other house than 6s in my time and it was completely the whim of the housemistress. The year I joined the house, there were 3 who entered surname initial C number 30, surname initial E number 17 and my name was Hills and got 14 so neither alphabetical nor the reverse. I don't think we ever queried it at the time!

At Hertford you certainly kept 'your' number from start to finish, inheriting it from someone and passing it on to someone else. It was traditional that when one returned, as an 'Old Girl', you were expected to give a gift of money or sweets to the 'new' person in 'your' number.
I don't remember having an adjacent number to people in my own year group so I guess that as time went on, the allocation of numbers became more random, depending on who had left the year before.

I was 5.15 and 2.11 (5's was a Junior House - or rather it was still called a 'Ward' - when I joined in 1957)

1.3 and 3.31

About 2 years after leaving, I was visiting, and spotted by an old housemaid, who insisted I meet the new Thornton matron (Miss Benbow; Miss Dalziel having retired). I was introduced thus: "Matron, this was B27!"

jhopgood wrote:What I can't remember is how they allocated House numbers. Was it as simple as ordering numerically those available and then giving them out in alphabetical order?
My memory bank does not seem to have that detail available for my year.
Given that most people these days seem to leave at the same age, this must mean that the same numbers come up every few years.

In the Prep I was Prep A 51 which meant that I was always near the end of every queue - they were always in number order which meant that first and second years got mixed up.

When it came time to move up I was told I was going into Col A and given the option of two numbers 9 and 40. Given my Prep experience I chose number 9. (the number 40 comes back to me because the person vacating that number posts here!)
However, the intake for Col A that year was 5 (from memory) so why I wasn't given a wider choice I don't know. Their numbers were well mixed up but since everything was based on intake year that didn't matter. In those days (barring unusual situations) boys could be there for 5 to 7, occasionally 8 years so numbers would get well churned up.

I can't remember how dorm places were arranged. Certainly we started in the top floor at the front of the house and steadily moved (by year) towards the back of the house. From there we went down a floor starting at the front again. However, within years I suspect Matron allocated places. In the Prep A bed positions were based on house number

PeB 39 ThA 37. In the darker moments I drew comfort that Paul Newmans prison number in Cool hand Luke was 37. I wonder if the school still keeps all our numbers on record like some huge govement database.

Another Mid A 15 here (although the username is taken by "an original"...)
Previously BaA 27

The Puss