House Roll Calls

[Kit Bartlett]

What I wonder was ever the point of all names being solemnly read out each evening at House Duty.? Did anyone ever check
why somebody was missing? They might I suppose have been ill in the Infirmary or even , perish the thought, have run away as some
did on occasion. In those days of course the whole house would have been locked in from a fairly early time in order to do prep.

[postwarblue]

In Col B the duty monitor read the Roll at Lock-up. From memory in 1947 the roll started Winter Naylor Tabor Alves Hoskins Truscott Malim .. what strange detritus lurks in the dusty attic of the mind ..

[jhopgood]

Not quite the same, but in amongst all the Old Blue papers, I have come across a photocopy of a booklet with all the names of the masters and pupils at CH for the Michaelmas Term 1938.
It has lists of Forms with the master designated to each form, House Masters, House Captains and House Matrons, School Monitors and the name of every pupil, by alphabetical order, with their House, Form, Options, date of birth, year arrived at CH and place. Not sure what they mean by "placed", but it might be the form when they arrived at CH.
Hence Owen Hopgood (no relative and I have been unable to get any additional information), was in Maine A, U.F.B, with an option in French, born 15-10-24, arrived 3rd term 1934, placed III.C.
There also seems to have been a Probationary Grecian level.
An interesting list, no idea why I have it.
But I wonder for how long these lists were produced, and when they were stopped.
Masters still at CH when I was there were

Classical Grecians Mr D.S.Macnutt (also Senior House Master Peele B)
Modern Language Grecians Mr A Rider (also Senior House Master Maine A)
Mathematical Deps Mr. W. Armistead
Modern Language Deps Mr J.E.Massen
Great Erasmus E/Upper IV E Mr A.C.W. Edwards
Junior House Master Lamb B Mr G van Praagh
Junior House Master Thornton B Mr A.L.Johnstone

I'm sure there are others, but 1938 - 1959 is quite a long time compared to labour movement these days.

Finally there is a Hon. D.S. Roberts about whom I have a fair amount of correspondence.

Probably all end up in the museum for future generations.

[LongGone]

In Col B the duty monitor read the Roll at Lock-up. From memory in 1947 the roll started Winter Naylor Tabor Alves Hoskins Truscott Malim .. what strange detritus lurks in the dusty attic of the mind ..

MaineA '54: Cook, Karadzis, Yules, Cox, Kennedy, Emory, Burgess, Bent

Its the only year I can remember the order, maybe after that I paid no attention

[Kit Bartlett]

There is an extensive collection of the School Alphabetical School Lists, as mentioned by John Hopgood, in the CH Museum, from c. 1932 onwards. These started way back in early Horsham days. I have a few in my possession dating from 1941 to 1952, plus some in the mid nineteen seventies. They were published in September each year up to 1941 and then from February 1943 onwards. They had a blue cover. I am always looking for additions to my collection.
There is also a collection there of House Rolls from the thirties to the sixties. It would have been from these lists
that the Roll Calls were made. These were in seniority order and gave individual House numbers. I can still remember the Roll when
I started in Coleridge A in 1942 and also House Numbers. It started Kenney, Sacker, Campbell, Mutter, Symington, Douglass Clarke, Knott. Ilsley, Fawcett, Askew. Boxall, Beauchamp, Jacobs, Stone Potter

[Kit Bartlett]

I have traced Owen Hopgood from my C H Club Roll of Members. In 1947 he was in India working for the General Accident Fire and
Life Association Corporation in Apollo Street, Bombay. From 1958 he was shown as living at 93 Gloucester Road, Newbury. He did not appear again in the Roll of Members so presumably his membership had lapsed.
In my previous note about the Alphabetical Blue Books the dates should have read to September 1942 and then in February 1944.








i i

[jhopgood]

I have traced Owen Hopgood from my C H Club Roll of Members. In 1947 he was in India working for the General Accident Fire and
Life Association Corporation in Apollo Street, Bombay. From 1958 he was shown as living at 93 Gloucester Road, Newbury. He did not appear again in the Roll of Members so presumably his membership had lapsed.
In my previous note about the Alphabetical Blue Books the dates should have read to September 1942 and then in February 1944. i i

Thank you.

I had correspondence with "Bill" Band on Owen, (they were contemporary), but Bill had lost track as well.
Glad Owen survived the war, we both thought he might have succumbed.

Just discovered he and Gloria (presumably his wife) returned to the UK from India on the Strathmore in 1956.
Returned to the same address in Newbury.
Amazing what you can find in The National Archives.

[michael scuffil]

The Alphabetical Lists were still printed while you were there, John. Until 1963 at least, when I entered into a bet with a friend about how many people we could put a face to. I claimed about 600 in the end, but I think we gave the bet up.

It always irked me that some forms of presentation were indicated (e.g. RMS, RAF) but not others. I thought that would be more interesting than what Maths set someone was in.

As for House Rolls, copying them out was a common punishment. As a new boy I was intrigued by the letters against some of the names at the top. Like 'psg' (probationary science grecian), or 'hdg' (history deputy grecian).

In ThB, the monitor calling the roll had to make a list of absentees and compare it with names in a book of people who had permission/good reason to be absent. After tea half the house might be absent at surgery or a voluntary service in Lent.

[Katharine]

I'm interested that your House Rolls were by name, if we ever checked everyone was there, which we didn't do regularly, it was in number order. Number 1 started then we each said our number in order.

[sejintenej]

The Alphabetical Lists were still printed while you were there, John.

In ThB, the monitor calling the roll had to make a list of absentees and compare it with names in a book of people who had permission/good reason to be absent. After tea half the house might be absent at surgery or a voluntary service in Lent.

In Col A all the trades monitor got was a printed list in year order. The roll was called every evening before Prep; if anyone was missing an excuse would generally be shouted out (Sicker, with a named master etc,) but the trades monitor would report to Kit anyone for whom there was no known reason for absence (which was very rare). I cannot remember any of the list except the first name was always "KC" meaning (the late) Kenneth C Brown his initials being used to distinguish him from me.

[michael scuffil]

his initials being used to distinguish him from me.

Yes, I think initials were the only way boys with the same surname were distinguished. Juniors in particular used actually to address people this way: 'Scuffil M, may I... ?'

I don't think we ever used 'major' and 'minor'. Though a couple of boys in PeB were known as 'Harris Red' and 'Harris Black' from their hair colour.

[Kit Bartlett]

The Urquhart-Pullen brothers in Peele B were always known separately as Urquhart and Pullen. We had a number of brothers in Coleridge A always known by their initial.Were the Latin terms primus, secundus and tertius ever used ?

[postwarblue]

Ah, the Blue Book. Wish I hadn't thrown mine out.

In my father's time brothers would be Biggy and Littley. In mine, I think, known by initials.