Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

“ CH was still a single-sex school when DNP arrived. I think he was fairly aghast that boys were required to dress up as women to portray female roles in most drama productions, and I'm sure he was determined to change this sorry state of affairs, asap. ” Though back then the school was renown for i...

I think DNP would definitely qualify as bohemian. While he wasn't outlandish in his clothes, he was certainly a free and adventurous spirit and a huge breath of fresh air when he arrived at CH (circa 1972-ish?) as head of drama. With a bubbly personality and a youthful exuberance that was infectious...

A little off subject, but I'm so pleased that Seaman's ban on rock 'n' roll didn't last very long. In the late 60s/early 70s, CH was positively buzzing with music of all sorts - pop, glam, rock, prog, jazz, folk, classical, opera, etc. The wide range of music you could hear was an education in itsel...

Fascinating thread. I may have mentioned it before, but I do recall a craze at CH in the early 1970s for collecting Dunlop Groundhog tyre stickers. They were very colourful, there were a number of different ones available, and people started swapping them. Eventually it got so out of hand - with lot...

While I wasn't a huge fan of marching in to Dining Hall when I was at CH, it had its moments and I appreciated that it was an efficient and effective way of getting 800 pupils into one building at a set time for a meal. Marching also gave us a certain amount of pride in our house, our appearance and...

Mr Littlefield's nickname was always a mystery to me. I naively assumed it might have something to do with body odour, so it's interesting to read the various theories that have been put forward in this thread. All I can recall about him was that he was hall warden, there was no nonsense from anyone...

Glad to read this thread... it's brought back a lot of memories! I remember the milk churns from the 70s. Normally the milk was OK, but when it was off - yuck!!! Fortunately it wasn't off the day that I got the largest electric shock I've ever had in my life... and celebrated my recovery with a very...

Fifty years ago I was in my second year at CH. It had seemed a fairly normal day - getting up, marching to dining hall, breakfast, classes, and so on. Then in the afternoon my world - and my brother's - was turned upside down when we learnt that our mother had died unexpectedly at home. Our lives we...

Thanks for posting this Charles. It's fascinating, especially the map of the Tube system and photos of side tunnels, under the cloisters, chapel, etc. I recall various bods managing to get in to these out of bounds sections of the Tube, but I was never brave enough myself. Some years ago, my wife an...

More sad news.
Rocker was quite a character that many of us knew over the years.
RIP Bob.

Very sad news indeed.
I was a contemporary of Colin's at CH.
I didn't know him that well, but he was a good guy.
There's a longer obituary here, with a brief mention of CH:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/185 ... ncert-3am/

RIP Colin.

I remember leave days in the 1960s being rather dull, especially during the winter. But my brother was delighted to see us, wherever we went. Horsham - often on a rainy day - was inevitably the place to go. The Sunset restaurant - with a big hike up some steep stairs - was very popular with many hou...

Sad to hear this news.
I didn't know Tom very well, but very occasionally our paths would cross.
Definitely one of the good guys.
RIP Tom.

I was very sad to read in the Old Blue that Michael Streather (LHB, PeA 1968-75), had passed away.
I remember Mike from my time at CH. Nice guy.
I had no idea what he did after CH, and there's currently no obituary on the Old Blues section of the CH site, so I wondered if anyone had any news?

I heard a tale of a certain fellow pupil who was forced to participate in one of the aforementioned cross-country runs during the early 1970s. He became a cropper on the treacherous mud in Shelley's Wood, slipped and fell badly, doing himself a very nasty injury in the process. It was so serious tha...