Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

just to let people know, i'm an aspiring writer and have started a small autobiographical blog of my time at CH, felt that the people on this excellent forum would be the people to show it to first.
http://mystoryofchristshospital.blogspot.com/
Hope you enjoy the story, it will be update regularly until the story is finished?

[Comment from forum admin:- This post/blog should be read with caution. The veracity of the details, and the motivations behind the post, have been questioned by a number of people in the topic. Please cautious with passing judgement about CH, the ethos, or the information portrayed by this blog. Julian Taylor, Forum Founder, 19th Mar 2012.]

Pretty depressing: what time period were you there? It might be interesting to poll this forum to see if bullying has increased, decreased, or stayed the same over the last 50-60 years. My time was late 50s and I don't remember any systemic bullying of individuals, though there was a lot of low-level assertion of dominance that never went beyond the occasional blow.

without giving too much away regarding my identity it started at CH after the year 2000

*I started

CHblogspot wrote:without giving too much away regarding my identity it started at CH after the year 2000

I think the word "deodorant" in your article gave that away

No such namby pamby nonsense in the sixties and early seventies!

I can remember being "Piggy" rather than "Ralph" when some Lord of The Flies style ganging up went on and feeling very, very, low at times as you describe. Fortunately my love of sport and the countryside around the school kept me sane and, to paraphrase Tina Turner, things did get better....

Good luck with your blog and your writing generally.

Apart from the physical violence, it sounds horribly like my first two years in 8s. The sadistic nastiness of carefully-targetted bullying, and the fear, helplessness and self-loathing to the point of suicidal thoughts that are engendered when you have to suffer in silence & try to hide it all - well, bullying hasn't changed much in 50 years, has it? And to think some people fondly believe it doesn't happen at CH!

CH in the 50s/60s was pretty rough, but bullying, in the sense of making an individual's life a misery, was really not tolerated. Things seem to have got much worse. One can speculate as to the reasons, but I suspect the complete lack of privacy in those days had an inhibiting effect.

I think you're all being very generous. In that spirit I'll restrict myself to recommending the use of paragraphs and talcum powder.

michael scuffil wrote:CH in the 50s/60s was pretty rough, but bullying, in the sense of making an individual's life a misery, was really not tolerated. Things seem to have got much worse. One can speculate as to the reasons, but I suspect the complete lack of privacy in those days had an inhibiting effect.

Different houses had different reputations. I can fully believe your first sentence as applied to Thorn B but there was a house not a stones throw from you with a bad reputation. Given that houses were run by the boys in those days a complaint to a master and you might wake up in the sicker or elsewhere next morning. I can believe the housemaster not accepting the evidence in front of his eyes - he / she has to keep a lid on the pot. (Don't forget that CH had at least one well publicised suicide.) There is an upside to this - he will be exploited by employers, the state, the local politicians, NHS, job exchange and most people you meet; he has learned early on that everyone has an agenda and it is seldom favourable to you. He can now exploit this knowledge for his own benefit.

Your blog makes sad reading ... but I would add that someone very close to me suffered severe bullying whilst at school in the state sector ... mental and physical cruelty which was completely ignored or handled extremely badly by all the staff. Of course I wish they had never had to experience such agony at such a young age, however, they are I believe partly as a result of that one of the strongest people I know - spiritually. They have an uncanny empathy with my children and are very aware of what's important in life and who's important ...

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying that namby pamby "it's all character building" lark - but perhaps one day you will be in a position to provide help and support to someone going through what you went through.

Didn't get bullied, at all, in Ba B in the 40s.
This may have had something to do with the fact that I was from Pre-War Stockwell SE9 !

on a lighter note -- a few months ago, a young man attempted to mug me "Gis yer wallet ! "

I replied, with courtesy, "I don't think so "

As he ran away, I called after him "Tell your friends, you were decked by an 82 year old !"

Pre- War Stockwell, was a good training ground, particularly if Mummy has sent you to LCC school, in white socks !!!

sejintenej wrote:
Different houses had different reputations. I can fully believe your first sentence as applied to Thorn B but there was a house not a stones throw from you with a bad reputation.

Very true. And hats off to John Page. I really wonder whether I could have stuck it out in some houses. It made a huge difference then, which house you were in. And now?

I think it still makes a difference which house you're in. That's because ultimately it is down to individual house parents to set their boundaries, expectations and punishments.

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:Didn't get bullied, at all, in Ba B in the 40s.
This may have had something to do with the fact that I was from Pre-War Stockwell SE9 !

Not wishing to rain on your parade, but since when was Stockwell in SE9?

Rain accepted --- did I miss a 1 ?

( I left for CH in 1940 !!!)