Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Some OB readers don’t have easy access to UK newspapers and other such media. So, for those not at CH in the days of those on trial, significant statements such as, ... after reading the statements from the former leadership troika during Karim's trial (mostly Dickie P, though Liz made a bold play f...

Although it doesn’t add much to the thread, this extract from Miss DR West’s autobiography [1] describes her impressions of the Dam Busters premiere. “On 15 May 1955 I took the first RAF Scholars, a party of three boys and Diana [2], to see the premiere of the film The Dam Busters. I was surprised a...

I too had never heard of a high-class Spanish lady, nor any other lady, washing her hands in urine to keep the skin soft. But I had a superstitious great-aunt, of Polish peasant stock, who apparently would put some of her own urine on the forehead of one of her babies, if she believed that someone h...

There’s another reason (quite apart from the portrayal of a black American in a heroic light) why this painting is of great interest. Although not particularly successful financially Copley was a highly regarded portraitist and rightly so (eg his portraits of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who repre...

I note that Fitzsadou wrote on 1 November 2012, MTC ended his teaching career in the History Dept of the University of Western Ontario, Canada. There can be very, very few CH schoolteachers who could move effortlessly from CH to a University post. (One other who springs to mind was HLO Flecker’s pre...

Gad Malins taught me English when I was in the UF and then history the following GE year. I believe his degree was in history, although he was head of the English Department. We were taught to write two sorts of notes. One formal sort comprised full complete sentences, with paragraphs, etc. He calle...

It was swab (noun and verb - pronounced 'swob').

Concerning ‘Camp Coffee’ (with its politically incorrect label extolling military aspects of colonialism in India), its popularity almost certainly was due to its low price, compared to Nescafe, etc. This was because it contained a very high percentage of chicory, providing its unique taste. Also be...

I can take the record back another decade (mid 40s to mid 50s). Then I knew nothing of any bad feeling towards boys in Housey clothes in Horsham or anywhere else in Sussex (or the UK). Also the words “penguin bashing” and “Muntham House” were unknown.

For some reason I clearly remember that we had clean underpants twice weekly, on Wed and perhaps also Sat. In fact most of our laundering was twice weekly (socks, vests, shirts and handkerchiefs), with clean pyjamas once weekly. But unlike dsmg we only had big cubby holes in the linen room where suc...

I didn’t have any such access to my instrument, nor did any young OBs, whom I knew in the 1950s and 60s. One university OB friend and a good trombonist seriously considered joining the Salvation Army to allow him to continue playing. He didn’t of course and I have no idea whether he finally was able...

I don't think so. He contested Rye (Sussex) in the Labour interest in 1979, but came third. He has however written on political philosophy.

Thanks Michael. Sorry.

The Tempest’s Prospero was Anthony Arblaster, later an MP. After the shipwreck he appeared in an immaculate white shirt, strikingly calm and elegant as though having just disembarked from an upmarket cruise ship.

Thanks for the information about AJ “Joe” Salkin. There was also a presentation of The Merchant of Venice in 1954, when it was the (Oxford and Cambridge Joint Board’s) O level set work. The lead was taken, I think, by Richard Shuttleworth, Maine B, a superb actor. I suspect that he did very well in ...

Joe Salkin was in Barnes A.
Does anyone know what happened to him after he left school? University? Then what? And now?