Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I was reminded of ‘Uncle’ today when served Cos lettuce at home for the first time in a few years. He grew them, and other vegetables, and these were the highly appreciated rewards to those who did garden work for him (such as Adrian B Scripps of Mid A, who was particularly adept with the motor mowe...

Dr WH Fyfe, appointed headmaster in 1919, made many changes at CH. He broadened the curriculum far beyond Classics and Mathematics for grecians/university entrance and recognising Constant Lambert’s talent he ensured that he was the first Music Grecian. It is difficult today to appreciate Lambert’s ...

Although I can only remember one sermon from my years at CH, the thread’s plural title may encourage comments on other sermons (and this one too, of course). Sometime in the mid 1950s there was a visiting preacher, Colonel Heck (or some such name). He was a US Army Chaplain, with a loud voice and co...

One CH anecdote on this topic was about a worried widowed mother of a young boy in Thornton A. She said to Fred H (the senior housemaster), something like, “Please will you tell little Cedric the facts of life, because I have no husband who can do this for me?” Sure enough Fred H called in young Ced...

The most recent issue of the Wadham Gazette (the annual magazine for Wadham College, Oxford; Pat's College) contains a short obituary for him. I have reproduced it below because it describes an interesting event in his life, only hinted at in the other obituaries posted above. From the Wadham Gazett...

Well this Pop/Jazz ban has shattered some of my fond illusions. I look back on my time at CH as having been spent in a moderately liberal environment. Clearly in different houses there were different policies concerning music. I cannot recall any ban in the 50s and Radio Luxemburg’s pop music was s...

Also present at these Matrons’ Inspections were junior monitors (numbers 5 and 6 in the hierarchy, since normally there were 6 monitors per house) who supervised the juniors when they went upstairs after evening house prayers. The two junior monitors were present while the juniors washed in the dorm...

EGM was certainly in the CCF in the late 40s as Capt. Malins, and presumably that was his World War 2 rank. Does anyone know what he did in that war? The story about the white horse on CCF parade is true, but EGM was not involved. However he was the sort of person who could have carried it off. An O...

There was at least one comprehensive Latin text book, by H Flecker and D Macnutt, used of course at CH in their days. This was accompanied by their ‘Concise Latin Grammar’. This grammar used a most ingenious system and it helped me immeasurably, so much so that I have always been astonished that it ...

Tush (Sgt Usher) was in his element during swimming sports. His speciality seemed to be the measurement of the open plunge, a popular event. Participants dived in and then glided without any limb or torso movement. The person who moved furthest, and had to hold his breath for a long time, won.

In our house the monitors took the mini-service of House Prayers in turn. One monitor never read from the New Testament, always using the OT. I finally deduced he was Jewish, but this was not otherwise obvious, for he attended Chapel and Divinity lessons.

What I remember of gym was general indifference and it being considered a sort of necessary evil. Those gifted in that direction were exceptions. But there was some fun, with “sea pirates”. For our last session of the term we had a modicum of ordinary gym, then “sea pirates”. This was a game where 2...

Visiting this thread, active almost a decade ago, I noted an important omission. Frank Brangwyn does indeed have a museum devoted to his work. It is in Bruges, Belgium and merits a visit. (Also don’t miss the nearby museum of Flemish primitives.) Brangwyn was born in Bruges, the son of the British C...

Thanks Kit. At least I got most of it right. Martin

It was Mrs Len Bates who helped with the dancing classes and she was a very competent ballroom dancer. Her husband was the cricket professional on the CH staff and he had previously played for Worcestershire. They had a son in Lamb B. DC Chaundy had two degrees, in maths from Oxford and in physics f...