Dear Rockfreak,
I object to many of your posts, not on the grounds of your political views (which you make no effort to hide) but because you are patronising, make sweeping and unsupported assumptions, and are frequently simply inaccurate.
You say, "..Why do you want to send your children away to be brought up by strangers? Other civilised countries don't do it." That is quite simply wrong. I suggest that you consult
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_boarding_schools, which I think that even you would have to agree is a rather long list! (Incidentally, this has nothing to do with forcibly removing indigenous children to educate them in "white man's ways", which was wrong and I would condemn as heartily as you do, but that is past - the schools in the wiki list quoted above are here and now.)
Secondly, you fail to mention the forty-odd UK state-supported boarding schools in England and Wales. These are excellent establishments and show what can be achieved by a combination of state and private resources.
Thirdly, you say that the children looked miserable in those old sepia photographs. The fact is that virtually everybody in those old photographs looked serious, because taking a physical likeness was a very serious business, and you will find very few pictures of people smiling or laughing. I have looked at hundreds of such old pics in the course of research and there is nary a smile among them! Some may have been miserable, but I am prepared to bet that most were not.
Finally, for now, you say: ".
..Is it that most Old Blues have moved on and forgotten their schooldays so that this site merely represents a rump of people who have some kind of official attachment to the school?" Unlike you, I do not set myself up as representing any one other than myself, but I can say that I have no official connection with the school whatsoever, and that I look back on my time there (1948-55) with pleasure and gratitude. Yes, there were some things that could have been done better - perhaps, in some cases not at all - but the overall balance was very positive.
I am very happy for you and your daughters that they had such good experiences at a state school. But I can assure you that there are also some poor state schools and a few wicked people in them - just as there in almost every human organisation.
David