Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I repeat ----------

Don't forget I was born into the "Business", Member of a Police Authority, Special Constable, currently Member Dorset Police Advisory Committee.

The tales both JR and I could tell ------ but won't !

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:I repeat ----------

Don't forget I was born into the "Business", Member of a Police Authority, Special Constable, currently Member Dorset Police Advisory Committee.

The tales both JR and I could tell ------ but won't !

Thanks for the laugh Neill........we all have pasts that have shown us things best not spoken of!!!!!

Billingsgate Market at 8am as a young Police Cadet .........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough!!

I'm coming to this discussion a bit late but, for the record, having checked old copies of The Blue up to 1990 I can't find a single photograph of the cape/cloak being worn (although this may not be helped by the fact not many wet weather photographs appeared in The Blue, even if the cloak hadn’t been so unpopular).

I did find a couple of interesting photographs on the subject of the girls’ uniform.

The first comes from the Lent Term 1985 edition (prior to the merger) and shows the girls’ new uniform being modelled. This was probably the first boys' first sight of the uniform. (If the full photograph doesn’t appear, blame PhotoBucket.)



The second, and more interesting, comes from the Michaelmas Term 1984 edition, again, pre-merger. This shows the Non-Foundationers Sidonia Porteous and Tanya Sillett in full Housie coat and bands. The picture doesn’t show what they were wearing underneath (shame) but if my memory is right, Tanya certainly used to wear breaches and yellow socks. Everything might have been so different…



No study of the school uniform would be complete without recalling the bags for carrying books that the girls were issued with at the time of the merger. I think these were some kind of canvas shopping bag affair with some kind of CH logo on the front. Hopefully someone else can fill in the details. After a few weeks these were abandoned by all but one girl (who stubbornly continued to use hers for several years). These were so unpopular that I doubt they were ever issued again and there may never have been more than 220 or so issued. Does anyone still have one?

simongibbs wrote:No study of the school uniform would be complete without recalling the bags for carrying books that the girls were issued with at the time of the merger. I think these were some kind of canvas shopping bag affair with some kind of CH logo on the front. Hopefully someone else can fill in the details. After a few weeks these were abandoned by all but one girl (who stubbornly continued to use hers for several years). These were so unpopular that I doubt they were ever issued again and there may never have been more than 220 or so issued. Does anyone still have one?

In my time at Hertford we all had School Bags for our books until we reached the sixth form when we carried the books/files in our arms. None of the bags then had the crest. I don't know whether the bags lasted until the merger.

I remember the bags at Hertford - very brown very rectangular things! but I don't remember any bags at all at Horsham... maybe because I was a Dep but I really don't remember any bags at all - Vonny?

I have to ask the question, is Tanya related to the Bob (?) Sillett who, if memory serves, was a master at Horsham in the early/mid 60's ?

J.R. wrote:I have to ask the question, is Tanya related to the Bob (?) Sillett who, if memory serves, was a master at Horsham in the early/mid 60's ?

Bob Sillett still very much alive and has sent in photos of a CH wedding in Hungary for use in the OBM.
I believe he got to be Deputy Headmaster or whatever that position is called.

J.R, yes.

Vonny posted this response previoulsy in relaiton to Bob Sillett:

Robert David Taylor Sillett
About Bob Sillett
In September 1963, Bob Sillett was appointed to the staff of Christ's Hospital by the then Headmaster, George Seaman. Gordon van Praagh was instrumental in this appointment since he was keen to find a suitable replacement for Bill Kirby, who was retiring after many years' service to the school. Bob's specific remit was to teach science to the lower sets, which he has done for the last 38 years.

He married Denise in the summer of 1965 and in the following years they had three children, Tanya, Kate and Joe. The girls both completed their 6th form education at Christ's Hospital and Joe was the first non-Foundationer to have his father as Housemaster when he joined Leigh Hunt B in 1983.

Among the many roles Bob enjoyed were fourteen years as Housemaster. He was Chairman of the Games committee, rugby coach, referee and cricket coach. In subsequent years he became Third Master, Second Master and Deputy Head.

Other responsibilities included being Master in charge of Pageantry, President of the Band and he was a member of the Sports Centre building committee.

In July of this year (2002) Bob and Denise moved to their new home in Billingshurst, not a million miles from Christ's Hospital. Bob, Denise and their three children are now Governors. This will mean a continued link with the school for all members of the family as they present the child of their choice and support them during their time at Christ's Hospital.

mvgrogan wrote:I remember the bags at Hertford - very brown very rectangular things! but I don't remember any bags at all at Horsham... maybe because I was a Dep but I really don't remember any bags at all - Vonny?

I too remember the brown bags we had at Hertford. I definitely never had a bag at Horsham and as far as I remember we just carried books around in our arms

simongibbs wrote:
Vonny posted this response previoulsy in relaiton to Bob Sillett:

I don't remember doing that lol