Charter Day June 26th,1953

[sejintenej]

Just come across a book which I haven't seen mentioned before; it is a record of the quartercentenary celebrations in 1953 and is called Crhrists Hospital Four Hundred Years On.
Apart from Winston Churchill and (implied from the content) HM the Queen the authors are generally indicated only by initials - HLOF (Flecker) and (the ? infamous) DRW being noticable. A few pupils are photographed - P Julian (presenting a bouquet), Margaret West (those shoes and socks !!!), R A Sells and P F Moule (in a play), two squads of girls doing an "eyes right" whilst marching past at Horsham, H B G Johnston Senior Grecian (loyal address and reading a lesson)
As to uniforms, I have to smile (well laugh) at the Duchess of Gloucester inspecting the girls (and one solitary very little CH boy in uniform) and accompanied by a large lady whose shapeless black dress is indescribable, topped by a white alice band and big ear muffs. Can I put initials to her? I guess yes.
There are short chapters about the uniforms - the details about the girls stop in 1897 and of the boys in 1917 (though Flecker states that the girdles in 1953 were still supposed to be red, "stamped with stars and roses with the head of King Edward VI and .....a full length figure of a Housey boy"). For the boys - we used to wear a petticoat, (yellow to avoid vermin) the bands were originally a ruff but gave way to a broad collar. In 1587 these were blue and light blue. The red caps (later black) disappeared in 1857 whilst in 1736 breeches were issued to such sick and weakley children" as were selected by the doctor to receive such privelege (what did the rest wear?). Though not mentioned in these chapters and not seen in the photos, it is recorded elsewhere that money was left so that the income on it would buy gloves for all the children to be worn at Easter; I never saw any!

Various masters had/have nicknames such as "The Oil" (Flecker) but I note that Dr Upcott (first headmaster at Horsham) was "The Butch" and in Latin "Carnifex". How meanings of words change!

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

It was said, at the time that I joined CH (1940) that "Oily" Flecker had got his nickname from the first meeting which he had with the senior Grecians and School Monitors.

The story goes that he explained to them --- "You are the Works and I am merely the Oil "
The subsequent nickname was inevitable ---- but I always thought it was a very good remark, I my time it WAS the Monitors who ran the houses and administered minor discipline, with the Masters in an overseeing role.

[sejintenej]

It was said, at the time that I joined CH (1940) that "Oily" Flecker had got his nickname from the first meeting which he had with the senior Grecians and School Monitors.

The story goes that he explained to them --- "You are the Works and I am merely the Oil "

I had heard that and in the light of the following it was very aposite.

In my time it WAS the Monitors who ran the houses and administered minor discipline, with the Masters in an overseeing role.

In my time (1952-1961) also. Yes, it was the monitors who ran the house, discipline, sometimes even first aid/health, ensured that every job got done properly, organised games, feeding, the lot.
That was highly educational - 17 and 18 year olds running an organisation of 50+ people on a 24/7 basis with major problems for any slight failure in organisation. The need to seek help from a housemaster was a sign of total failure - we ensured that we never failed