Search found 138 matches

by MrEd
Wed Nov 27, 2024 8:34 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: David Newsome
Replies: 18
Views: 24460

Re: David Newsome

Starting at CH in 1978, Newsome came across as a donnish and distant man, he could never remember my name, he remembered that he couldn't remember it once in our occasional encounters. He did interview me before admission at the CH office in the City, and he seemed very nice then. From the rumours ...
by MrEd
Mon Oct 21, 2024 7:09 pm
Forum: Stories, Reminiscing & Teacher/Pupil Memories
Topic: Crab flab and muck
Replies: 7
Views: 3888

Re: Crab flab and muck

It was 'crug', surely, not "crab"?!!
Definitely 'crab' in the late 1970s.

About 20 years ago the CH website mentioned 'croissants' as part of the breakfast. Ye Gods, that sounds like progress (well, until tested and tasted, perhaps not).
by MrEd
Mon Oct 21, 2024 12:20 pm
Forum: General Chat - Non CH
Topic: Should I renew my UK passport?
Replies: 29
Views: 7060

Re: Should I renew my UK passport?

I could have had an Irish passport had my grandmother got her act together, but it was not to be. In terms of the use of a UK passport over an Irish one, effectively there is no difference what with the Common Travel Area which has been in place since 1923. Whether you are applying for a job ...
by MrEd
Sun Oct 20, 2024 4:03 pm
Forum: Stories, Reminiscing & Teacher/Pupil Memories
Topic: Bob Sillett's horror/ghost stories....
Replies: 26
Views: 15901

Re: Bob Sillett's horror/ghost stories....

RDTS or 'Fatarse' as he was known certainly had a colourful routine of stories, some we understood were gleaned from his Masonic connections in the Sussex Police and beyond. He had tales about the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry (which was surely the biggest news story of the early 1980s) to regale us with ...
by MrEd
Thu Oct 17, 2024 7:59 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Removal of VAT Exemption
Replies: 12
Views: 6669

Re: Removal of VAT Exemption

There is now some chatter that the removal of the VAT exemption might 'backfire' in that it could mean that schools could reclaim otherwise unrecoverable VAT that they have paid on supplies (perhaps in the past 6 years) and so have a temporary bonanza.

There is also some chatter about member of HM ...
by MrEd
Tue Oct 15, 2024 9:00 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: CH Colours
Replies: 45
Views: 15898

Re: CH Colours

As far as I can recall (1978-1985) there were School Colours and for lesser beings, House Colours, but the criterion or criteria for any award was a mystery, perhaps deliberately so, easier to recognise than prescribe as it were. AFAICR, there was some form of blazer badge involved and perhaps ...
by MrEd
Fri Aug 30, 2024 8:21 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: OLD BLUE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA?
Replies: 4
Views: 3619

Re: OLD BLUE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA?

Mr Hilton is certainly an eminent OB, perhaps the pre-eminent one of his generation, his achievements including helping Cameron to squeak past Gordon Brown into Downing Street and the rest is history, including Brexit, the classic mistake that Cameron's late brother, a QC, would never have made 'Don ...
by MrEd
Wed Jul 24, 2024 10:48 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Death of Ian Atkinson in 2022
Replies: 1
Views: 1991

Re: Death of Ian Atkinson in 2022

Thank you for that information, I had a lot of respect for Ian Atkinson. He seemed like a vicar who actually believed, even in the late 1970s a bit of a surprise. He taught me Latin which I struggled with in the Third Form (iirc) and he was delighted when I told him I'd got an 'A' at O-level. I ...
by MrEd
Wed Jul 24, 2024 10:41 pm
Forum: Stories, Reminiscing & Teacher/Pupil Memories
Topic: Strange old man dressed in WW1 army gear / dog named lobster
Replies: 144
Views: 128424

Re: Strange old man dressed in WW1 army gear / dog named lobster


Amazing.! A man of many parts and from another era. Do you remember the huge picture of a cow defecating on the wall of his lab? It was there for years. The picture I mean - not the cow.

When he was long retired, c. 1980 and had his lab at the back of the New Science School with his bees ...
by MrEd
Tue Jul 23, 2024 8:28 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Removal of VAT Exemption
Replies: 12
Views: 6669

Re: Removal of VAT Exemption

VAT is a tax of monstrous complexity and I could well imagine that the support given by the Foundation to those not paying 'full fees' might be regarded as a subsidy to a 'supply' and so it might be made liable to VAT, just saying. The purpose of this VAT is not to raise revenue but to undermine the ...
by MrEd
Thu Jun 06, 2024 8:31 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Stockholm Syndrome among Old Blues
Replies: 14
Views: 9795

Re: Stockholm Syndrome among Old Blues

Is your only purpose in life to come on here and patronise your fellow OBs? Asking for a friend.
by MrEd
Sun Jun 02, 2024 11:02 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: CH cross-Channel Regatta, July 11-14
Replies: 6
Views: 7976

Re: CH cross-Channel Regatta, July 11-14

What a splendid outing. I went to Guernsey a few years back and found it absolutely delightful, St. Peter Port is a very pleasant town and you can see all the other Channel Islands from there (IIRC Jersey was on the very limits of visibility), and looking over at Sark and Jethou they look very close ...
by MrEd
Thu May 02, 2024 9:15 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Amelia White (in the Daily Mail) deplores her CH years
Replies: 28
Views: 144811

Re: Amelia White (in the Daily Mail) deplores her CH years

To hidden,

It is perfectly clear that CH was appallingly badly run in the 1970s and right up to the 1990s, and you have every right to feel let down by what happened there. For some of us, like me, CH was actually a haven from an appalling home life in a single-parent household. For others, it was ...
by MrEd
Thu May 02, 2024 8:42 pm
Forum: General Chat - Non CH
Topic: Stirring Hymns
Replies: 6
Views: 2823

Re: Stirring Hymns

'To be a Pilgrim', Bunyan's poem turned hymn is best known set to the tune of Monk's Gate, named https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yHJMPw8RHU, for the hamlet just south-east of Horsham, near Manning's Heath, around 3 miles from CH. A fine tune it is.
by MrEd
Sun Jan 21, 2024 6:30 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Tenniel Evans
Replies: 1
Views: 2752

Re: Tenniel Evans

It's the second time the ship has done this in a few years. I only wish they could have been made to explain themselves to Chief.