Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

"She was never as awful as the woman we had in the interim whose name I forget "
God, yes, I remember her - an absolute psycho ! Perhaps why Fanny seemed so much better to us after !

Did you ever "sit with" Dot's mother ? That was wierd, but great for getting you out of games/croc walks/ junior preps...

I never did. she must have been older than god

Don't think we saw her mother much. She didn't live there when i was there. I dont think DR had the same problems with teenagers as most heads would -most of us hardly thought of ourselves as teenagers in all the usual ways that the label implies. All we had in common with the teenager culture was our age. Lost quite an important part of growing up. THat's a scandal.

As for scandals now, there are long running rumours that Gene Simmons bedded various people whilst at CH!
[moderated - to avoid libelous allegations! - JT]

Other than that, CH is remarkably scandalousless. (what? Is that even a word?)

Oh yes, and the infamous Prep Block Fire of '05. Caused by a bored LE, playing pyro games with spray deodorant and a lighter.

Nyort wrote:Other than that, CH is remarkably scandalousless. (what? Is that even a word?)

Scandal-free?

I've read through 7 pages in my catch up and no one has mentioned the departure of my housemaster in the early 80's for inappropriate behaviour, the headline in The Sun was soooo original...."Goodbye Mr Chips"

I also remember the drugs bust of 1987 or was it 1988 and the visit of David Kossoff who's son Paul Kossoff (guitarist in Free) died of a drugs overdose. It was meant to turn us off drugs but frankly the amount of merchandise he flogged taught me far more....

adlop wrote:I've read through 7 pages in my catch up and no one has mentioned the departure of my housemaster in the early 80's for inappropriate behaviour, the headline in The Sun was soooo original...."Goodbye Mr Chips"

I also remember the drugs bust of 1987 or was it 1988 and the visit of David Kossoff who's son Paul Kossoff (guitarist in Free) died of a drugs overdose. It was meant to turn us off drugs but frankly the amount of merchandise he flogged taught me far more....

I remember the drugs bust making the tabloids, and David Kossoff's visit to the theatre, but not the Housemaster bit - was he just before Mr Sutcliffe? (Who's only "inapproriate behaviour" was his inability to keep his head still when taliking to you, and his SideBurns)

David Kossoff must have been pretty ancient when he visited C.H.

He used to present some God-slot show (Stars on Sunday?) on telly when I was really young.....

Interesting that this sort of visit might have had the opposite of the desired effect on some people.

In the '70s we had a visit from Mary Whitehouse, of the National Viewers and Listeners Association.

Far from causing us to mutter "Gosh, yes, she IS right, there's far too much smut and filth on television", she came across as such an intolerant old rat-bag that we were more likely to end up sympathetic towards whatever she was campaigning against at the time.

I'm sure David Kossoff wasn't like that, though.

srcudlipp wrote: I remember the drugs bust making the tabloids, and David Kossoff's visit to the theatre, but not the Housemaster bit - was he just before Mr Sutcliffe? (Who's only "inapproriate behaviour" was his inability to keep his head still when taliking to you, and his SideBurns)

It was before Sutcliffe, Sutcliffe was Deputy and got promoted, it was the year before you started.

Richard Ruck wrote:David Kossoff must have been pretty ancient when he visited C.H.

He used to present some God-slot show (Stars on Sunday?) on telly when I was really young.....

Interesting that this sort of visit might have had the opposite of the desired effect on some people.

He was pretty old and yes I don't think it went down well, I seem to remember his'catchphrase' about drug death was 'it's such a waste' and many people left the theatre saying it was indeed a waste of our time to sit through such tosh and a few peope were overheard and hauled up as a result. It was a pretty bad time for a number of people who got caught up in it and who should have been suspended not expelled. Sledgehammer to crack a nut, especially when you condsider how much drinking was going on that was far more damaging than a bit of dope.

Let's see... I'll probably miss a lot of them out, and I can only clearly remember a few: one of the lead caterers left because they enjoyed underage "adult material", several sex stories between pupils meant that some were suspended and I think only very few left, a few other teachers left because of alleged affairs... No, to be honest, I had a relatively boring 5 years at CH from this point of view. I'm sure fewer people were caught during my time there than were actually doing scandalous things