Ernest Christopher "Kit" Aitken

[Foureyes]

Further to the above, Kit's twin brother Rev Aubrey Aitken (1911-1985) was a curate in Kingston at the time (1937-40), so presumably it was a family reunion!
David

[Ajarn Philip]

All of this is so much more interesting than the bare bones. I love the idea that in 1938 Kit could just pop over to Kingston for a few weeks to visit his brother. I dare say he spent longer travelling there and back than he did in Kingston!

[sejintenej]

Further to the above, Kit's twin brother Rev Aubrey Aitken (1911-1985) was a curate in Kingston at the time (1937-40), so presumably it was a family reunion!
David

Priest serving abroad. Huge house in England, brother sailing first class. I have heard this before!!!
In that case the priest was serving in Taormina, Sicily and very very big trust fund in the UK. I don't know how it worked (I was very young at the time) but it was something to do with tax. This was the 1950's so the rules will have changed by now

[Foureyes]

"brother sailing first class"
SS Ariguani carried 99 passengers, ALL First-Class, so there was no Second-Class or steerage option.
He went out to Kingston aboard SS Carare, sailed from Bristol 1 July 1938. This was also an Elder Dempster vessel and a sister-ship of Ariguani, so also only first-class accommodation.
I suggest that this was entirely innocent. One brother visiting his twin, leaving England as soon as the school summer term broke up and returning in time for the start of the Michaelmas term.
David

[Foureyes]

Apologies. Made an error in previous post. Shipping line was ELDERS & FYFFES and NOT Elder Dempster. My mistake.
David

[ASR]

I was driving back to school one evening with my mother after a Leave Day and used the narrow entrance road by the pitches nearest the Bax Castle from where Kit was returning with a skinful driving just ahead of me. On the narrow approach towards The Mile his car gently slid into the ditch. I had to rouse a groundsman with a tractor, I recall, to make his rescue. Kit was unharmed.

[Jabod2]

One morning the pedal was removed and put on the other side! He had to walk back to the House.

I heard this story, and was taught English and possibly Latin by Kit. I'm suspicious of the bicycle pedal story as the pedal have opposite thread. Swapping the chain from one side to the other might have been possible, but more complicated and would have taken longer.

There was a wooden chair leg in his formroom, which engendered Kit impersonations (obviously in his absence) of 'Always keep a spare! Always keep a spare!'.
A genuine person...

[eucsgmrc]

One morning the pedal was removed and put on the other side! He had to walk back to the House.

... I'm suspicious of the bicycle pedal story as the pedal have opposite thread. Swapping the chain from one side to the other might have been possible, but more complicated and would have taken longer.

In those days, bicycle pedals were not threaded at all (except perhaps for specialist sporting bikes). They were simply a push fit on the crank axle.

So what stopped them from either slipping off the axle, or slipping around it? A cotter. I won't try to describe it, but it was a simple and solid arrangement. It would certainly allow you to swap a pedal from one side of the bike to the other, and it would not be a long job.

You can, if you're curious, read about it in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotter_(pin).

[Jabod2]

In those days, bicycle pedals were not threaded at all (except perhaps for specialist sporting bikes). They were simply a push fit on the crank axle.

That's what I was saying - the pedal cranks would have to have been swapped and as you say are held in place by cotter pins (I know them well!). Swapping them is not straightforward as one is plain and one has the chain wheel attached as an integral part (this has been so an all bikes I've worked on from my 1960's Fairy cycle onwards). Swapping the cranks means that you'd have to move the chain to the other side, which would mean reversing the back wheel. It would work for a fixed wheel (trendy today, and Kit's probably was in order to make one-legged pedaling work).

Swapping the wheel round would also mean breaking and remaking the chain to move it to the other side of the frame. The guilty parties would be oilily identifiable.

The pedals screw into the cranks, and have opposing threads, moving the pedal from one crank to the other wouldn't work. I think that Kit's bike only had the chain crank, without the plain one (no point as it would only interfere with the wooden leg). Does anyone recall which leg he'd lost? The chain is usually on the right-hand side (as you sit on the bike). If it was his right leg he'd lost, the swap would have to have been done already.

One of the things we used to do to each other's bikes was to move one crank round by 180 degrees so that the rider had to push with both legs simultaneously resulting in a horse-rider-like mode of progression...

[Ajarn Philip]

Does anyone recall which leg he'd lost?

Argh! Do you realise what you've done?? We're all wracking our brains trying to come up with images of Kit cycling through the cloisters...

My money's on the left leg...

[sejintenej]

Does anyone recall which leg he'd lost?

Argh! Do you realise what you've done?? We're all wracking our brains trying to come up with images of Kit cycling through the cloisters...

My money's on the left leg...

Agreed but I cheated by looking at photos

[donaldfay]

I have just stumbled on this topic, which I have enjoyed.
Kit treated me well, but perhaps gingerly and always very properly. I was an avid Kirby-ite and also enjoyed being around the Art School, both perhaps incompatible with being friends with Kit.
I seem to remember (a few years ago) walking outside Ranworth church and realising that one of the path slabs had his name on it, perhaps a horizontal gravestone.
He attempted to teach basics of sailing. The only thing I learned was to duck when "Leo" (lea side over) was shouted.
I was on two of his holiday trips to the Broads, the first included Corks and the second Mr Potts. There was an incident when Kit had been bathing in the river in front of a lawn when the woman in the adjoining house had come out with a mop to fend him away. But perhaps that was in my dreams.
His home phone number was South Walsham 248, when the CH number was Southwater 248.
He had me awarded House Colours for rugby, when I did not deserve that.
He had me awarded the school "Master Mariners' Prize for excellence of character", my only school prize and again undeserved. (Perhaps a prize for surviving nearly teen years at Horsham and having had no other prizes). Only recently I found out that there was a Master Mariner livery company, which nobody had explained to me before
Perhaps I had Kit for a short time as a Latin teacher in LF or LE.
Thanks to those people who have also posted here.
Don Fay

[Straz]

Kit Aitken taught me O-level general classics, circa 1971/72, which I believe was his last year or so at CH. I have memories of him arriving at the Classics block on his one-pedal bike and spending the first five minutes of each lesson, sorting out his bicycle clips. That wasn't too easy with his wooden leg, but he always completed the task with aplomb. I also recall that we had to do a "rough" copy of our Latin translations, followed by a "fair" copy of the same. "Rough copy, fair copy" he would chant, as we prepared for each translation. He kept strict control of his classes, rarely allowing any humour. One amusing moment sticks in my mind though, during an English-Latin translation. "Is life worth living?" said Kit. "It all depends on the liver. Joke over. Joke over..."