Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I joined this forum about twelve years ago. I believe the first topic I contributed to was "First day, last day' which brought back a range of memories; some good, some bad. Back then there was always a wide range of topics being discussed, much enhanced by the presence of the women (after my t...

I am researching the development of handheld/desktop calculators and would be grateful for any help on an unusual mechanical device I remember being used by some boys at Housie during my time there - 1948-1955. I have searched Google but cannot find it, but a keyword would help. It fitted into the ...

Another good one would be Japanese Kendo - far more entertaining than fencing... [/quote] Like all sports, its in the eye of the beholder. Having fought for years when young, i thoroughly enjoy watching the fencing. On the other hand I cannot understand the appeal of synchronized swimming or race wa...

sentinejej, You write: " There were no movie ratings.... " Are you sure that is correct? I seem to recall that all films were seen by the British Board of Censors, who then classified them into 'U' (=universal; i.e., could be seen by any age)); 'A' (adults; i.e., over 16 (maybe 18); and I...

So much of folk music was passed orally from singer to singer and generation to generation. By the time it got written down there often multiple versions. One I came across recently is Wildwood Flower. For many, the definitive version is by the Carter family with first verse: I will twine with my mi...

On the subject of radio, you might be interested in Radio Garden. The green dots on this Google Earth map represent radio stations all over the world. Click on any one of the dots and you will immediately hear that station with very good reception. For example, halfway up Ireland's east coast, ther...

Another thread, about rock music in the 50's, contains a couple of peoples' suggestions for music/performers that might not be so well known. It occurs to me that we might pursue this as a topic. The forum contains people from very different locations, backgrounds, experiences and tastes, so we migh...

“ CH was still a single-sex school when DNP arrived. I think he was fairly aghast that boys were required to dress up as women to portray female roles in most drama productions, and I'm sure he was determined to change this sorry state of affairs, asap. ” Though back then the school was renown for i...

David, David, David - this is the problem with the Internet isn't it: a mixture of facts, falsehoods and half truths? A senior religious scholar in Saudi Arabia did indeed issue the said fatwa but he was not the supreme religious authority as such; as far as I know, there are no supreme (earthly) a...

I feel that the original premise, housemasters influenced the image/actuality of each house, has merit. It has been mentioned several times on this site that bullying varied enormously from house to house. My memory of MaA was that it was rare and fairly random. Both Todd and Barker exuded an aura o...

The great advantage of having Henry as our founder is Immediate recognition: when you say Edward VI it elicits mainly blank looks followed by “The guy who abdicated?”

Well, since “Kit” is a common contraction for Christopher, and he is at Col A, I will go out on a limb and accept them as being the same person.

"Bring back slide rules, blackboards and fountain pens; so many unnecessary luxuries that could be done away with... "

Slide rules and fountain pens!! What sort of nonsense is this? Fingers and an honest nib pen that sprayed in all directions were good enough for us.

The only ones I remember were off Two Mile Ash in a wooded area. One was concrete, with an opening facing the road and had no back. My ex-army brother-in-law suggests it was probably for use by an anti-tank gun, which could be quickly removed out the back. The other was fairly close and was undergro...

They could aternate the skiffage pie with Marmite fritters to provide a balanced diet.