Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

When I was in Col A (1954-62), there were a good number of old silver broadie buckles in use. They were worn almost smooth with use on the front, but the back (being protected by the leather) retained the hallmark, so we knew - if we cared - that they dated from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. Anybody who had one was expected to pass it on when he left, to somebody who was just moving from narrow-girdle to broadie status. It was unheard-of for a leaver to take one of those buckles with him. You decided for yourself who you would give your buckle to. There was no centralised system of distribution.

There weren't enough for everybody, and quite a few people wore newly made broadie buckles. I don't know how they got them - whether the school issued them, or whether you had to buy them. I can't remember, either, whether it was acceptable to take one of those with you when you left the school.

Questions:

Was it the same in other houses?

Are any of the old buckles still in circulation?

How long did the handing-down tradition last?

If I remember rightly, new broadie buckles came on to the market in about 1955, and cost 30/-. Until then, the only source for a long time had been hand-me-downs. In ThB certainly the practice was, if you didn't want to fork out the thirty bob, to get an old one from the house stock, and of course you were expected to return it to the house stock, or else hand it down to (for example) your swab. Mind you, by the time I left in 1963, most people wanted new ones, so I don't know if mine was ever re-used.

I chose an old one because they were all different and had character, and I didn't really like the look of the new standard model.

In the dim and distant when dinosaurs frolicked in the Doctor's Lake, one shipped one's Broadie on entering the UF.

I went up to the UF in September 1949. The OB husband of a cousin lent me his buckle. The rather unsavoury Col B house bully tried to talk it off me on the grounds that he was senior to me and hadn't got one. After about a year we could buy our own, as I recall from the Tuck Shop for half a crown (could be wrong about that) so I did that & sent back the family one. There was no question of handing over one's own buckle and I still have mine. In my final year I was lent a Travers buckle as a Maths Grecian and volunteer member of the RMS (boys destined for the Navy were entered onto the books of the RMS on declaring this, coming in alongside those who came in originally to CH as RMS with fathers in the Navy etc).

I bought my own broadie buckle, and still have it. But I have no idea how much it cost, how I came to buy it, or where from, or even if there was any choice. I wish I could remember.

I recently acquired an old Travers Buckle on eBay, which is now my avatar.

Broadie buckle thread:

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