Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

When I looked at the CHA website for details of OB Day this caught my eye, so I thought I'd give it a plug here.

“Lady Bountiful and the Bluecoat Boys” will be broadcast on Radio 4, Friday February 15th at 11.00am

Two men attempt to discover why they were taken from their primary school in a Welsh mining village at the age of ten to complete their education in an expensive Sussex boarding school. They relive the shock of the day they were transported from Ogmore Vale as they learn more about the woman they barely knew but who bankrolled their secondary education.

If you miss it, it is 2 pages in the Old Blue

Thanks Katharine - I'm looking forward to listening!

I missed it by half an hour !

Thanks for the pointer.
Seemed a very good account of the presentation system and, uniquely, the background to that particular Presentation Governor. No details of the two main subjects were given - one of them started during the war but the second was there whilst I was there (he was at the showing of "The Dambusters") but I didn't recognise the names. I suspect that the Colin Davies interviewed is the conductor?
Also I hadn't been aware (or didn't remember) that there was a 613 squadron silver plaque worn by some boys.

Just a thought for those in the know: would the Counting House consider looking up the records and telling me who "presented" me back in 1953?

sejintenej wrote:Thanks for the pointer.
Seemed a very good account of the presentation system and, uniquely, the background to that particular Presentation Governor. No details of the two main subjects were given - one of them started during the war but the second was there whilst I was there (he was at the showing of "The Dambusters") but I didn't recognise the names. I suspect that the Colin Davies interviewed is the conductor?
Also I hadn't been aware (or didn't remember) that there was a 613 squadron silver plaque worn by some boys.

Just a thought for those in the know: would the Counting House consider looking up the records and telling me who "presented" me back in 1953?

There was one in the year below me in Coleridge B.

If I re-call, his name was Townsend.

J.R. wrote:

sejintenej wrote:Thanks for the pointer.
Seemed a very good account of the presentation system and, uniquely, the background to that particular Presentation Governor. No details of the two main subjects were given - one of them started during the war but the second was there whilst I was there (he was at the showing of "The Dambusters") but I didn't recognise the names. I suspect that the Colin Davies interviewed is the conductor?
Also I hadn't been aware (or didn't remember) that there was a 613 squadron silver plaque worn by some boys.

Just a thought for those in the know: would the Counting House consider looking up the records and telling me who "presented" me back in 1953?

There was one in the year below me in Coleridge B.

If I re-call, his name was Townsend.

Geoff Neuss, exact contemporary of mine in Barnes B was one also.

I've just checked the Coleridge B House Photo I posted yonks ago, but he appears to be missing from the front row where he should be.

Sicker possibly ??

You can probably listen again through the Radio 4 website. I listened to it online and I think they have that facility for most, if not all, their programmes.

It was better than I feared it might be, and actually very interesting. I just wish they had stressed the charitable nature a bit more; that the school wasn't full of "toffs". They did mention at one point that it was a charitable foundation, but they really gave the impression that if you were working class, the only way you could get in was if you were bright and were presented by a benefactor, which wasn't true when I went to Herford in the late 60s, and I don't suppose was true earlier either. I can see how it was a world away from Welsh village life, and probably perceived as posh, but none of their fellow-students would have been from wealthy families, and this wasn't made clear.

What I did find pleasantly surprising was how keen the families had been for their sons to be chosen to go to CH. I would have assumed they'd have been deeply suspicious of anything as apparently poncey and middle/upper class as an English boarding school, especially with such an "odd" uniform.

The plaque/badge worn by Barnes-Wallis's presentees was 617 squadron, and they included a number of girls, certainly while I was there. The badge was, IIRC, a bit like a mon's badge (I dare say the latter became a thing of the past on the move to Horsham?)

I thought it quite a good programme given it was just 30 minutes and had that particular slant of Ursula Ridley. What I wanted to know was did she present any girls - if not why not? She was said to be a suffragette (I think, I was working while listening!) so I would have thought she should have been interested in girls' education.

Link to listen again here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/1zfgn/

Katharine wrote:I thought it quite a good programme given it was just 30 minutes and had that particular slant of Ursula Ridley. What I wanted to know was did she present any girls - if not why not? She was said to be a suffragette (I think, I was working while listening!) so I would have thought she should have been interested in girls' education.

That's a good point, Katharine - the programme did say she was a suffragette. I think she knew about Horsham because they lived nearby, but once she got interested she couldn't have failed to know about the girls' school at Hertford.

I thought I'd heard of Jasper Ridley....... just realised I have his biography of Lord Palmerston!

Jo wrote:
It was better than I feared it might be, and actually very interesting. I just wish they had stressed the charitable nature a bit more; that the school wasn't full of "toffs". They did mention at one point that it was a charitable foundation, but they really gave the impression that if you were working class, the only way you could get in was if you were bright and were presented by a benefactor, which wasn't true when I went to Herford in the late 60s, and I don't suppose was true earlier either. I can see how it was a world away from Welsh village life, and probably perceived as posh, but none of their fellow-students would have been from wealthy families, and this wasn't made clear.

Remembering that those interviewed went in the 1940's and 1950's I think things were a bit different then. Certainly there were two types of entrants - those with a presentation and those who got in through competitive exam. In the 1950's I always assumed that everyone was from poor backgrounds *though those who were not quite so poor had to make a financial contribution.

* there was also the matter of the home circumstances - a boy whose parent had died or was incapacitated or violent would have an improved chance of getting in just on those grounds; the concept of "need"

Later, and I thought it was after the 60's there was a change to allow entrance of children from more affluent backgrounds who could pay up to the entire economic cost.

I have just seen in today's Independent it was the critic's Pick of the Day on radio. Don't know whether the critic is an OB!

Katharine wrote:I have just seen in today's Independent it was the critic's Pick of the Day on radio. Don't know whether the critic is an OB!

Same in The Telegraph today...