Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Any Brexiters wishing to deal? I am not sure that there are too many Brexiteers around, at least not who would admit to it, on this forum or elsewhere. Let's face it, we are a long way from those sunlit uplands and, whilst Covid has clearly exacerbated a number of problems, we are hardly alone in t...

After we got over the worst problems of rationing (necessary in order to spread scarce resources around) most working class households in the later 50s (like my dear old mum's) were able to cook up simple if wholesome food and a good roast on Sundays. Though I am pleased never to have been subjecte...

In your list of luxuries at CH Sejintinej you mention hot meals. But you don't say what sort of hot meals. No idea what it was like in the 1950s but by the 1970s it was utterly dreadful, inedible slop and not even much of it and; from about 1975 onwards, it was also largely based on the meat substi...

Parents should be able to spend their money as they see fit. A lot choose to prioritise a private education over holidays in Spain. In France, the middle classes tend to drive old bangers(no road tax for cars over 15 years old) and instead spend their money on education. Over here, the chavs and th...

Of course in other more civilised, social democratic western European countries, time please (and the rest of us) would be paying realistic levels of taxation for state education so that everyone got a fairer start in life. But I've long ago resigned myself to the inward-turning isolation and mindl...

As L P Hartley wrote in The Go-Between, 'the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there'. I find this increasingly coming to mind as we collectively reassess the past, particularly as it seems that modern commentators tend to see everything in terms of black and white: it was either...

J.R. wrote: ↑Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:46 pm We are going OFF TOPIC.

... and that matters?

The basic medals awarded to members of the armed forces on active service and those of the merchant marine were the same: the British War Medal (BWM) and the Victory Medal, the Squeak and Wilfred of the Pip, Squeak and Wilfred triumvirate. The Pip was the 1914 or 1914 / 15 Star, only awarded to tho...

I well remember the Chinese shopkeepers in places such as Change Alley in Singapore who were really, really fast. When they went clickety-click (etc) on their abacus and then said, "that's a special price for you, Tuan, twenty-five dollars thirty" it was impossible for the bewildered Brit...

I am researching the development of handheld/desktop calculators and would be grateful for any help on an unusual mechanical device I remember being used by some boys at Housie during my time there - 1948-1955. I have searched Google but cannot find it, but a keyword would help. It fitted into the ...

Just come across this thread. I remember Mr Grimshaw as a young man in the 70s. I was useless at manual work but managed to make a cross in metalwork and a lamp in woodwork which I still have. I notice that two of the teachers were a Mr Perry and Mr Wyncoll (Periwinkle). Ha ha - hadn't made the per...

Trying to find my father's WW I record I found it very confusing. Not only was he awarded Merchant Marine medals but also those befitting someone in the trenches. In the end I was able to dismiss the trenches medals and follow his service on HMS / RMS Medina. Two sets of letters? She was the Royal ...

This has descended into a fairly unsavoury slanging match which perhaps should be concluded. As far as I am concerned, Ken Grimshaw was one of the good guys, an excellent teacher and a good bloke all round. He was also a married man and strangely enough there is nothing wrong or odd about a straight...

I guess if the chaplaincy is wise enough to pick time-honoured belters that people can enjoy singing then they will get enough of a response. ISTR ‘Oh Jesus I have Promised’ was a particular fave but there were others. If however some bl**dy awful dirge from Taize made it onto the charge sheet then...

It was a bad day for the country. The second of Margaret Thatcher's two recessions was gathering pace and starting to make people redundant in the South as well as the North. The anger over the poll tax was gathering pace too and would explode in a couple of months' time. It's merely surprising tha...