Search found 48 matches

by Oliver
Sat Mar 05, 2022 7:22 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Films at CH, 1956-1960
Replies: 17
Views: 45104

Re: Films at CH, 1956-1960

Another film (pre-war) that entertained me greatly as a junior was 'Alf’s Button Afloat', starring the Crazy Gang (How many readers have heard of them? – very, very few I suspect) If someone wants to compile all the titles of films shown at CH Horsham in those days, I believe they were listed on the...
by Oliver
Tue Nov 23, 2021 6:44 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Housey Soap
Replies: 3
Views: 1457

Housey Soap

What soap is used in the dormitories of CH in 2021? I have no idea, but I strongly suspect that it is not the soap used in the 40s, 50s and probably for long after that period. Then the soap, most distinctive and called Housey Soap, was a crude, concoction, effective, though unattractive in appearan...
by Oliver
Sat Dec 19, 2020 9:27 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Pongo - Eric Littlefield
Replies: 34
Views: 18516

Re: Pongo - Eric Littlefield

An indication of Pongo’s admirable cleanliness and fastidiousness was the fact that his hands and nails were scrupulously clean and pink, for he was a chain smoker of Senior Service. After each cigarette he brushed his fingers, nails, etc, with a nail brush. This was in stark contrast with Fal (Mr P...
by Oliver
Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:02 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Going nuts at CH
Replies: 25
Views: 11049

Re: Going nuts at CH

Interesting though these comments on the politics of the 70s are, the original observations are of equal interest in my opinion. Can anyone explain why this symposium took place? Was it because participants were simply interested in mental health problems and wanted to learn more and exchange opinio...
by Oliver
Tue Jul 21, 2020 8:09 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: GRACE
Replies: 71
Views: 34295

Re: GRACE

Another so called ‘party dance’ that was very popular in the dancing class, and also at the formal dances with St Catherine’s (girls') School, Bramley, Surrey, was the Lambeth Walk. There must have been some sort of coordination between the two schools, for those girls seemed to know the few ‘party ...
by Oliver
Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: GRACE
Replies: 71
Views: 34295

Re: GRACE

The Grecians’ ballroom dancing classes ended because Mr DCF Chaundy, who initiated and taught them (a teacher of physics, very pleasant chap and junior housemaster in Barnes A) left CH for a post at Malvern College. He was a most enthusiastic folk dancer and successfully taught ballroom and Morris d...
by Oliver
Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:18 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: RESEARCH - FLYING BOMB
Replies: 19
Views: 7112

Re: RESEARCH - FLYING BOMB

I was at CH in the 1950s and never heard of the Flying Bomb incident. But it is unsurprising that Mr Kirby did not mention it. He was absent and serving in the Royal Signals for the duration of the war.
by Oliver
Wed May 27, 2020 6:36 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Pongo - Eric Littlefield
Replies: 34
Views: 18516

Re: Pongo - Eric Littlefield

Saying “NO” . Many masters/teachers at CH had their idiosyncratic ways of speaking. Pongo had a way of saying “No” that I have never come across anywhere else. He would say quite often, “That is OUT , definitely OUT ”. This phrase was sometimes copied by some boys in his house, but he was no more n...
by Oliver
Tue May 05, 2020 5:06 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Pongo - Eric Littlefield
Replies: 34
Views: 18516

Re: Pongo - Eric Littlefield

By the general observation of the external shape of his lower pubic region when trousered (that is when Pongo was trousered, not the observer). I must modestly assert that it was not my discovery. Many others, who were not necessarily keen singers, shared this opinion of his jock strap and/or genita...
by Oliver
Mon May 04, 2020 4:08 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Pongo - Eric Littlefield
Replies: 34
Views: 18516

Re: Pongo - Eric Littlefield

Pongo was taller than 5’ 8”. But he did have a curious characteristic. Either he always wore a jock strap or his ‘wedding tackle’ was unusually small. In the Housey version of “She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes,” of Pongo’s days, one popular verse was, “She’ll be wearing Pongo’s joc...
by Oliver
Sun Apr 05, 2020 9:45 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: I.A.R. Christie, Lamb A 1956-63
Replies: 29
Views: 11403

Re: I.A.R. Christie, Lamb A 1956-63

Perhaps overall most brothers were in the same house. The following pairs certainly were:

Arnold
Cavendish
Eyles
Griffiths
Millwood
Stileman
Wilkins
by Oliver
Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:25 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: History in the fifties?
Replies: 18
Views: 9124

Re: History in the fifties?

I too was at CH and studied history there in the 1950s, not as a speciality, for I ‘majored’ in science. My most impressive history teacher was the superb Mr Edward Malins, so I suspect I was unusually fortunate. With him teaching me in the GE I studied the French Revolution, the Chartist and other ...
by Oliver
Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:53 pm
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: When did masters become teachers?
Replies: 9
Views: 3321

Re: When did masters become teachers?

During the 1940s and 50s only the term ‘Masters’ was used, not ‘Teachers.’ To include another period in this thread - during the 40s and very early 50s there were a few female teachers, relics of the many war time female replacements of males, who were then in short supply. They taught only the lowe...
by Oliver
Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:11 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Two OB punsters
Replies: 1
Views: 1629

Two OB punsters

In a recent article published in The Paris Review , on the value of puns (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/11/15/in-defense-of-puns/) there are the following two passages. Charles Lamb once remarked that, when the time came for him to leave this earth, his fondest wish would be to draw his l...
by Oliver
Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:04 am
Forum: General Chat - CH Stuff
Topic: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster
Replies: 37
Views: 12133

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Is there anywhere else in developed Europe where all this entry gymnastics cobblers exists? People seem to deal with secondary and tertiary education and get their uni places in a reasonably straightforward manner. And do they do any worse than us as a country? Perhaps someone with personal knowled...