Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

and any other current Blue posters on the forum re your prizes on Speech Day.

http://www.chassociation.org/events/rev ... ay2006.php

Many congratulations.

After the merger what happened to prize funds that we had in Hertford? I got the Thomas Firmin Prize for Maths twice - does that still exist? We had a lot of named prizes such as Louie & Lily Jurie Prize for Cookery, Wood Latimer Prize for Recitation and Grinling Prize for Academic Excellence as well as others many never quite knew what they were for - Craig & Robertson come to mind (Think Mary got one of those for being GOOD!).

Katharine wrote:Many congratulations.

After the merger what happened to prize funds that we had in Hertford? I got the Thomas Firmin Prize for Maths twice - does that still exist? We had a lot of named prizes such as Louie & Lily Jurie Prize for Cookery, Wood Latimer Prize for Recitation and Grinling Prize for Academic Excellence as well as others many never quite knew what they were for - Craig & Robertson come to mind (Think Mary got one of those for being GOOD!).

Robertson Gift for service to the school.
I think they were just glad to see the back of the goody two-shoes.


There was also the somebody or other prize for the head girl, I wonder what happened to that.

I see Luke has TWO prizes, that means he will go REALLY wild when he leaves.

I would say he will start wearing blue eyeshadow (see post from WAaaay back) but as he comes from the North-East I doubt it.

englishangel wrote:There was also the somebody or other prize for the head girl, I wonder what happened to that.

Dipnall Jackson Gold Watch for Head Girl - at least if they served the whole year. (Why can I remember these useless things? - Thomas Firmin and Grinling I have but no others)

I see that some of this year's prizes do not elaborate what they are for - just as Robertson Gift didn't tell us anything while we were there.

englishangel wrote:

Katharine wrote:Many congratulations.

After the merger what happened to prize funds that we had in Hertford? I got the Thomas Firmin Prize for Maths twice - does that still exist? We had a lot of named prizes such as Louie & Lily Jurie Prize for Cookery, Wood Latimer Prize for Recitation and Grinling Prize for Academic Excellence as well as others many never quite knew what they were for - Craig & Robertson come to mind (Think Mary got one of those for being GOOD!).

Robertson Gift for service to the school.
I think they were just glad to see the back of the goody two-shoes.


There was also the somebody or other prize for the head girl, I wonder what happened to that.

I see Luke has TWO prizes, that means he will go REALLY wild when he leaves.

I would say he will start wearing blue eyeshadow (see post from WAaaay back) but as he comes from the North-East I doubt it.

I daren't ask !!!!!!

Katharine wrote:Many congratulations.

After the merger what happened to prize funds that we had in Hertford? I got the Thomas Firmin Prize for Maths twice - does that still exist? We had a lot of named prizes such as Louie & Lily Jurie Prize for Cookery, Wood Latimer Prize for Recitation and Grinling Prize for Academic Excellence as well as others many never quite knew what they were for - Craig & Robertson come to mind (Think Mary got one of those for being GOOD!).

Doris Fairchild prize for Chemistry (got it 3 times-hardly anyone did A-level Chem.

J.R. wrote:

englishangel wrote:I see Luke has TWO prizes, that means he will go REALLY wild when he leaves.

I would say he will start wearing blue eyeshadow (see post from WAaaay back) but as he comes from the North-East I doubt it.

I daren't ask !!!!!!

When he first joined the forum I commented that in his avatar photo he looked as if he was wearing blue eyeshadow. He has now posted a larger picture which cleared up the matter to my satisfaction.

What happend to the CCF prizes??

The Boards recording the prizes given at Hertford from the year dot are in the corridor between the Counting House and the Court Room, at Horsham. So all those names are still recorded, for posterity!
The House Boards recording the Monitresses at Hertford are in the the 'companion' Houses (at the merger) - Barnes A and B and Coleridge A and B, at Horsham. After all these years since the merger, however, these Boards must be a bit of an anachronism to the current occupants of those houses, especially since there are now also girls in Leigh Hunt A and B and next year there will also be girls in Thornton.
Yes, at Hertford, the Dipnall Jackson Watch went to the Head Girl, every year.
In later years, at Horsham, a prize (a 'real' Mons Badge from Hertford) was given to one or two 'prominent' girls from Horsham until - whoops - they ran out (there were only 16 of them in the first place!) There is not even (I believe...) one left in the Museum. Some years ago I was asked if I knew where to get them re-made... no, sorry, I didn't! So much for all those years of silver polishing!
I was at the time upset at yet another example of Hertford and Horsham not quite hitting it off.. the prime catastrophe being the loss of the Francis of Assisi Window from the Hertford Chapel, which has been 'lost' (apart from a few panes) since it was crated up for removal to Horsham.
I know that Horsham was and still is very interested in the Hertford inheritance. But these two examples of incompetence at the actual time of the merger still give limited confidence in the will of the authorities, at the time, to fully assimilate Hertford and Horsham.
Hopefully,in the future, the School as a whole, will be EVEN MORE cognisant of its Hertford inheritance.

kerrensimmonds wrote:In later years, at Horsham, a prize (a 'real' Mons Badge from Hertford) was given to one or two 'prominent' girls from Horsham until - whoops - they ran out (there were only 16 of them in the first place!) There is not even (I believe...) one left in the Museum. Some years ago I was asked if I knew where to get them re-made... no, sorry, I didn't! So much for all those years of silver polishing!

If they gave those earlier ones away what did they do with the ones that you and I actually wore, Kerren?

kerrensimmonds wrote:Hopefully,in the future, the School as a whole, will be EVEN MORE cognisant of its Hertford inheritance

Funny, I have never seen myself as a torch-bearer but I suppose that is what I am becoming.

It was 'our' badges which were taken to Horsham and given out as prizes until suddenly someone discovered that there weren't any left!

kerrensimmonds wrote:It was 'our' badges which were taken to Horsham and given out as prizes until suddenly someone discovered that there weren't any left!

When we both started at Hertford, the Mons' badges were real silver, polished within an inch of their lives. They had shown the head of our Founder King with a big hat but after all the years of polishing many visitors thought they were English oak trees. These were not solid discs but had a rim ofsilver with the head cut out in the centre. There were just 16 of these and they were engraved on the back with the Ward/House numbers (possibly there were two more for Head Girl and Deputy, I never cleaned any other than ones saying 6s). I presumed from your posting that these were the ones given away. At some stage before we reached the VI form these were replaced with newer ones. This was when houses could have more than 2 Mons because there were more of these badges. The status 'Senior Black Apron' disappeared, not because the aprons were now green but because such a girl could become a Mon.

They all went, Katharine. I am not sure whether the over-polished ones all survived the influx of the newer ones, which must have been ?early 1960's. When the school contacted me some years ago to ask if I knew where the badges had been made, so more could be created, I was told (I think?) that 18 had been taken from Hertford to Horsham. These must all have been the 'newer' ones (though by then they themselves would have been over 20 years old and maybe pretty well polished by then!). The 'school' (as opposed to 'now') picture of me on the CHA Advisory Board webpage shows me wearing mine at the time. They were fairly special, we thought, and of course we were proud to wear them. They were clearly distinctive (our equivalent of cuffs and buttons - although I bet none of them end up on the eBay market as buttons have done!).

I still have my 'P' badge (for 'posture') and my 'different' Old Girl's badge (just the crest, plain and simple) - 'different' as it was given to girls who had achieved sporting colours. There again, I recall a telephone call to my flat in London when I had left school about five years. It was DRW (putting the fear of God in me.. I became a gibbering idiot!) asking if I would lend it back so that it could be copied - apparently, again, they had run out!

I'm going to go reckless with my book tokens...


It's nice to be recognised by the school, even though we may not know what the Worshipful Company of Carmen prize is. I hope that no one who received one failed to realise, even if it was in a very small way, that the school is proud of them.

And this prize-giving in general sounds like it was a bigger deal, 'back in the day'.