Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

The chaplaincy had a tendency to be occupied by somewhat suspect individuals - usually single males. It was always a subject of tittering humour. The school long had a very ambivalent attitude towards the subject "that will not be mentioned", and you are quite right, being caught with a fe...

Exactly right - I had forgotten all about that sideline. It also got you out of the worst trades because you were busy doing whatever the monitor needed done.

Can you imagine how many of us lost souls there are out there, permanently damaged by being called a squit for a year. The word has been in common use at CH since sometime BEFORE 1850. So at least 150 years of school boys have (I presume) major problems with self-image? Dont you just love the PC mor...

Fotching was always a despicable act of legalized brutality. Same for beatings - the guy should have been expelled. On some fronts the place has improved beyond belief - I am sure we would have had Tom Brown "burnings" if there had been open fires big enough to do it. Strapping someone on ...

Personally I remember having to use the tunnels to get into Hall in really bad weather. They were preferable in some ways to the more mundane march in. They were actually very practical from that point of view, and what the hell did anyone know about asbestos back then? Dank and smelly and usually ...

Personally I remember having to use the tunnels to get into Hall in really bad weather. They were preferable in some ways to the more mundane march in. They were actually very practical from that point of view, and what the hell did anyone know about asbestos back then? Dank and smelly and usually w...

David, I did nothing wrong - I simply decided after getting my scholarship in Dec 59 that I would not go back to the school. Sent a letter to Seaman and then made a trip on my own to return the uniform etc and get my Bible from him in his study. He did at least wish me well, but he knew me very well...

Check the Old Blues Clubs section.

Actually in 52-55 the monitors were allowed to administer beatings - depending on which House you were in. Some houses banned it before others and eventually (under Seaman I think) the practice was banned entirely. There was also "fallout" violence in the form of "fotching" a pra...

Beam = backside c1905 black jimmy = a foul medicine around 1885 broadie = the buckle for reaching middle school bogs = the bogs at the back of the House during my day (1905 style hygiene) chalks = milk at Hertford gag = stew beef, slang is referrred to by Lamb in one of his essays tightassed = a can...

Now I remember most of that - I was there in that period. There was also a lot of bullying when I first went there, with a delightful technique known as "fotching". This involved a very unhealthy whack round the back of the head. At home I have a dictionary of "housey slang" and ...

I'm an old f**** listening in on this series of memory lane nostalgia that I find really baffling. I go back so far that one only went to one House for one's school career. Everything was "common" - individual studies only for the House Captain and his Deputy. Grecians' privileges (apart f...

There are loads of OB's in the USofA. Try a message to jbell@ssbb.com - he is the big honcho on the East Coast. I am fairly sure there is a generic newsletter and various get togethers. Personally I am on the Other Coast - along with more than 30 OB's with very loose connections. Feel free to email ...