Dorm Raids

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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MikeMather
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Dorm Raids

Post by MikeMather »

This is the story of an epic dorm raid that took place in 1978/9

While in Barnes B on the LE we were raided by Barnes A, sometime after lights out. The raiders stormed into the dorm and tore most of the blankets and sheets of the beds and hit a few of us with Pillows... Not hugely fun, but quite exciting.

Later that night I was woken by Mr. Torkington who said that I was to get a few others for a return raid on Barnes A! However this was to be a stealth raid.

Waking some of the others in the dorm we snuck downstairs to Mr. Torkington's study, where he explained that we were to sneak into Barnes A and quietly walk into the lower dorm and spread out, stand next to a bed and on the signal pull every bed off their frame and onto the floor. We were also to hit the Barnes A, LE in the head with their pillows, before making our escape.

This plan was executed with precision, we snuck in, crept up between the beds, and on the signal did our worst. We ran back to the house and into bed, knowing that we were not going to be getting into trouble for this, but that Barnes A would be stopped from retaliating. We all headed back to bed and to sleep.....

But it does not end there...

Being aroused from sleep later that night, Mr. Torknigon woke me up again and said that this time he needed everyone to come to his study, all the boys.

I woke up a lot of them, but not all believed me...

Upon arriving downstairs we were given our new set of instructions. We were to complete a second dorm raid and like the first, we were to sneak into Barnes A and quietly stand by a bed before executing the next part of his plan.

We were then given plastic cups and plastic bags told to fill them with water, and then form a queue to sneak into Barnes A again.

But this time we were not to come back to Barnes B, but run out of the house and down the avenue to Leigh Hunt, making lots of noise, before sneaking back into our own house.

However, as with the best-laid plans, not everything goes as it should. Being the middle of the night and not having everyone being involved in the first raid, things did not exactly go to plan! With the boys traipsing into Barnes A, up the stairs to both dorms all was going well. Until Justin Balding decided to shout "Charge!!!" as he reached the top of the stairs and rushed into the dorm.

Chaos ensued as everyone charged into the dorms. We threw our cups of water and smashed the plastic bags of water into the heads of the sleeping boys, soaking them and then pulling the beds apart. Shouting loudly we ran out of Barnes A, onto the Avenue chanting "Leigh Hunt A, Leigh Hunt A" while running on mass in that direction.

We ran around the Leigh Hunt block and then quietly snuck back into Barnes B and into bed. All I can remember of the next morning when we marched into breakfast was that no one from Barnes B said anything. The boys in Barnes A though had a lot to say to the boys from Leigh Hunt A.....

One last memory of this from the next day was that the Barnes A Matron, Ellie van Alphen was on the warpath as the water had ruined the wooden floors, removing all the polish and creating a huge amount of work for her to sort out.
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J.R.
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by J.R. »

Nothing like that in my day !!
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
Ajarn Philip
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by Ajarn Philip »

Hmm, my day would only have been about 8 years earlier. I'm trying really hard to imagine Basil Gregory organising something similar... no, nothing's coming through, my imagination has completely failed! :lol: :lol:

I have to say, though, that on being woken up in the middle of the night and thumped by a CH pillow or soaked by a glass of water, my reaction might not have been of the 'jolly japes' variety!
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by Katharine »

My mind boggles at the very thought! I presume the boarding houses were locked at night, but I can’t honestly remember.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by sejintenej »

Just try to imagine Kit Aitken going along with that either as attacker or victim. As the Prep A housemaster Mr Jones demonstrated in about 1952 it would be the cane which won and the pyjama pants which got cut.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
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Straz
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by Straz »

Fossilised fish hooks! Extraordinary behaviour!
Like Phil Underwood, I don't recall inter-house dorm raids going on in the early 70s.
However, I do recall the odd dorm raid going on between the two dorms in LHA, circa 69/70.
And what about Mr Torkington?
Is it possible he had a bet on with another master as to who would win the inter-house dorm raids?
I think we should be told...
:axe:
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Richard
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by Richard »

In the late 40s and 50s, not only were Dorm raids totally unknown, but entry into the passage between the two houses of the same block was forbidden and I am not aware of any who disobeyed this rule.

There were the many obvious legal exceptions
- Entry into the ground floor inter house passage to visit the senior or junior housemaster, or to use the Tube (underground passage linking all the blocks and the Dining Hall, etc) to go to the DH in wet weather, or to visit the Drying or Trunk rooms and
- Entry into the first floor passage to visit the matron on official business.

But entry otherwise, illegally and clandestinely – NEVER in those days.
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jhopgood
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by jhopgood »

J.R. wrote: Sat Apr 24, 2021 3:35 pm Nothing like that in my day !!
You surprise me.
I have vague memories of waking up one day to find a line of Barnes B britches hung out between Barnes B and Maine A. How that happened I am not sure, but we had to take revenge some how.
We decided to do something similar, but were surprised as we were in Maine A.
We dashed out, unfortunately, over a table tennis table that was on the floor under repair. I think they had just painted it.
It must have been in my last year but there was no comeback, and we just got on with life.
Barnes B 25 (59 - 66)
eucsgmrc
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by eucsgmrc »

Richard wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 6:01 am In the late 40s and 50s, not only were Dorm raids totally unknown, but entry into the passage between the two houses of the same block was forbidden and I am not aware of any who disobeyed this rule.
I agree with Richard and Sejintenej. As long was I was there (up to 1962) those passages were pretty much out of bounds, and we didn't transgress. And Kit would have imposed his authority if anybody had tried this kind of thing.

The later more relaxed regime may have been more fun, but perhaps it also provided space for furtive abuses.
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dsm
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by dsm »

If I remember correctly, in the 70s (and presumably before and maybe after) they weren't pillows, they were bolsters. Now that must have hurt :rolleyes: .
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Re: Dorm Raids

Post by seajayuu »

Katharine wrote: Sat Apr 24, 2021 8:10 pm My mind boggles at the very thought! I presume the boarding houses were locked at night, but I can’t honestly remember.
Katherine, I distinctly remember climbing out of the dorm window (having previously lubricated it with "marg", carefully saved from tea.) and then down the escape ladder. All this so that I could go swimming in our tiny swimming pool. Lily Thomson was regularly mystified - why did my swimming things take so long to dry?
Since the pool was not locked, I suspect that most buildings were not. The fire ladder was just a more interesting route out of house than going down the stairs and didn't involve going past Lil's room.
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