Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Tuesday HOOB in Col B also, as well as shoe cleaning with shoes shown up to the duty monitor after tea. It was apparent when visiting CH not long after I left that the latter had lapsed.

May I throw in Thursday afternoon as CCF parade, compulsory for all at 14 years. 1st year in the Army bit in D Coy under Gad Malins ending with Cert A Pt 1 and then, oh bliss, the chance to escape to Pongo Littlefield's more cerebral and indoor-oriented, and shod rather than booted and gaitered, RAF section. Since National Service beckoned for most this did have some application, although I do recall one particular Corps gripe in Col A giving the CCF his all and then failing the NS medical whereas one very unmilitary slouch in Col B ended up, I heard, commissioned.

postwarblue wrote:Tuesday HOOB in Col B also, as well as shoe cleaning with shoes shown up to the duty monitor after tea. It was apparent when visiting CH not long after I left that the latter had lapsed.

May I throw in Thursday afternoon as CCF parade, compulsory for all at 14 years. 1st year in the Army bit in D Coy under Gad Malins ending with Cert A Pt 1 and then, oh bliss, the chance to escape to Pongo Littlefield's more cerebral and indoor-oriented, and shod rather than booted and gaitered, RAF section. Since National Service beckoned for most this did have some application, although I do recall one particular Corps gripe in Col A giving the CCF his all and then failing the NS medical whereas one very unmilitary slouch in Col B ended up, I heard, commissioned.

And sadly, even more so in the last few years, Robert. I've had my say on this fact on another thread on this site some time ago.

East Gun Copse wrote:I'm impressed by Michael's detailed memory, puts mine to shame. Cold Baths were not myths in Thornton A while 'Fred' Hazelhurst ran it. Monitors would inspect towels to check they were damp. The 'old soldiers' would splash a bit of water on the towel but most ran the gauntlet of the bath. One bath filled and everyone queued up at the end to plunge in and get out before the next one came in. I never remember leaving books in the dining hall before chapel but I left in 1953 and that could be a subsequent change. One walked miles daily just between house, dining hall chapel and school apart from the other physical activities but I am reaping the dividend now as I get older and keep relatively fit in body if not in memory. I had forgotten about 'Duty' in the day room.

I worked out once that if you were at CH for 6 years, and in PeA, you probably walked about 3,000 miles more than someone in ColB. The linear design of CH Horsham was not exactly practical. There were alternative designs where the houses were grouped AROUND the central school buildings.

The whole point about the busy boarding school routine is that it is supposed to fill up your day and completely knacker you so that you don't have the time or energy to think about sex. Of course, some might say that all this exercise and training fills you with even more vim and vigour so that you are even more up for it. After all, Manchester Utd's training regime never seemed to dull their appetites for what I believe was politely called "roasting birds".

rockfreak wrote:The whole point about the busy boarding school routine is that it is supposed to fill up your day and completely knacker you so that you don't have the time or energy to think about sex. Of course, some might say that all this exercise and training fills you with even more vim and vigour so that you are even more up for it. After all, Manchester Utd's training regime never seemed to dull their appetites for what I believe was politely called "roasting birds".

As the proverb goes: 'Satan finds mischief for idle hands.'

However, I don't think it was JUST sex. There are other sorts of mischief, even for teenage boys. And also, given that many day school pupils spend hours travelling, I don't think the boarding school routine was exceptionally busy. Illicit sex (of either sort) in a day-school context would, it seems to me, have been far more difficult.

But do you not think Michael that, when we were there at least, the Judaeo-Christian hang-up with sex (especially homosexual) was all-pervasive? Nick Duffell (ex-boarder and psychiatrist) is interesting on this in his books The Making Of Them and Wounded Leaders. One of his editors, by the way, was the late Rob Bland who was at CH in the sixties. They are both critical of boarding schools, because of the way that we are the only country in developed Europe to remove our children from the family at a tender age and submit them to institutions for their upbringing. This is always a difficult one for me as an atheist because I've noticed, as Nick points out in his books, that it's the Catholic countries of the Mediterranean that are most aghast at our habits. Their cult of the Virgin (whether you agree with it or not) seems to have given them a more nurturing, caring society where children are allowed to be children and grow up in their own time, secure in the unconditional love of the family and balancing their societies to include the all-important feminine aspect. The unfortunate results of our own system can be seen in the products of our top public schools currently sitting on the Tory front benches.

rockfreak wrote:But do you not think Michael that, when we were there at least, the Judaeo-Christian hang-up with sex (especially homosexual) was all-pervasive? Nick Duffell (ex-boarder and psychiatrist) is interesting on this in his books The Making Of Them and Wounded Leaders. One of his editors, by the way, was the late Rob Bland who was at CH in the sixties. They are both critical of boarding schools, because of the way that we are the only country in developed Europe to remove our children from the family at a tender age and submit them to institutions for their upbringing. This is always a difficult one for me as an atheist because I've noticed, as Nick points out in his books, that it's the Catholic countries of the Mediterranean that are most aghast at our habits. Their cult of the Virgin (whether you agree with it or not) seems to have given them a more nurturing, caring society where children are allowed to be children and grow up in their own time, secure in the unconditional love of the family and balancing their societies to include the all-important feminine aspect. The unfortunate results of our own system can be seen in the products of our top public schools currently sitting on the Tory front benches.

I think they have got that wrong in several respects.
1) Children from the outer Isles need to come to the mainland and board there for their extended education - otherwise they simply can't be educated fully. The only other EU country which just might have the same problem is Greece.
2) France has "trade schools" as a parallel to academic education. A member of my honourary family over there had to leave home when she was about 10 to go to trade school, boarding about 50 miles away. (She actualy did quite well from such education; she
became captain of "Les Bleus" under 18s team). Such living away from home is not uncommon - in her case I think there are only two or three trade schools for her speciality in the whole country. My local lycée - about 4 miles away, has boarding pupils for academic subjects and there was serious consideration as to whether my neighbour's daughter should board there. (OK they are Hindu which gets round your jodeo-Christian hangup.). Ergo, IMHO the writer / editor were trying to hang their argument on frivolous grounds. Don't forget that even now CH is trying to import pupils from mainland China which families are unlikely to be Christion, Jewish or any other western religion.

The US also has boarding schools, though the percentage is much lower and almost exclusively for the 1%. Their primary function seems to be twofold: creating lifelong relationships for business and political careers and easing entry into the top Ivy League universities.

LongGone wrote:The US also has boarding schools, though the percentage is much lower and almost exclusively for the 1%. Their primary function seems to be twofold: creating lifelong relationships for business and political careers and easing entry into the top Ivy League universities.

I have long had the feeling that the likes of Eton and Harrow were like that. Then there was another one (?Millfield) whose output did well at sports.

[quote="postwarblue"]Tuesday HOOB in Col B also, as well as shoe cleaning with shoes shown up to the duty monitor after tea. It was apparent when visiting CH not long after I left that the latter had lapsed.

May I throw in Thursday afternoon as CCF parade, compulsory for all at 14 years. 1st year in the Army bit in D Coy under Gad Malins ending with Cert A Pt 1 and then, oh bliss, the chance to escape to Pongo Littlefield's more cerebral and indoor-oriented, and shod rather than booted and gaitered, RAF section. Since National Service beckoned for most this did have some application, although I do recall one particular Corps gripe in Col A giving the CCF his all and then failing the NS medical whereas one very unmilitary slouch in Col B ended up, I heard, commissioned.[/

Those who question the efficacy of school CCFs might be interested in a story about Anthony Eden when he was in a deputation of politicians trying to negotiate with Hitler in Germany before the War. On hearing that Eden had been to Eton, Hitler made that old crack about the Battle of Waterloo being won on the playing fields of Eton. Eden looked a bit doubtful at this and replied that it seemed unlikely if the Eton CCF was anything like the shambles that he remembered.

What a pity that the ladies appear to have quit the site. They could have told us whether the full timetable and all that hockey at Hertford (and Horsham) made them feel more up for it or less.

I haven't quit the site, I just thought you were all enjoying your discussion and left you to it. I'll try to remember our times and post them this evening! I'm off to work now.

Katharine wrote:I haven't quit the site, I just thought you were all enjoying your discussion and left you to it. I'll try to remember our times and post them this evening! I'm off to work now.

Thanks Katharine.

In all honesty, this site has been much quieter than of a few years ago.

As far as I remember it, for the winter terms, weekday

07.00 Rising Bell
07.20 Prayers in house - can't remember when we made the bed!
07.25 Duties - these were allocated on a termly basis, could be cleaning and polishing dayroom, cloakroom, bathrooms or wherever. Wardrobe Girls were chosen for their whole school career, I wasn't one. They sorted laundry, put out clean clothes etc
O8.00 Breakfast in Dining Hall - I think table laying duties changed week by week, I don't think we did it for the whole term
Return to house, mail distributed
08.40 Prayers in Chapel
09.00 Lessons, three lessons before brea
10.55 Break in house, milk drink for juniors, occasionally there was something to eat, not often!
11.20 Lessons two lessons before lunch
12.40 Return to house, table laying if on duty.
12.55 Lunch in Dining Hall, my first couple of years we marched for both breakfast and lunch, 6s were the last house to march, an extra few minutes of freedom! Many's the time I scooted back to the house after marching had started. Later we sort of drifted in to Hall.
Return to house
14.00 All out - everybody was supposed to be outside in organised activities, netball or hockey. Friday was, for me, Guides. If raining, then Country dancing in the gym!
16.00 Lessons two lessons before tea
17.20 Return to house
17.45 Tea in the house
18.30 Prayers in the house
19.00 Prep
Length of Prep changed as you went up through the school, also bedtimes got later and later. Seniors had their milk drinks in the evening, and could heat it and turn into cocoa or milky coffee! I think shoe cleaning was after Prep.

Wednesdays we didn't have prep, we did our mending! In Lent we went to Chapel for a weekly Lenten Address, I was very embarrassed when my father did them, which he did twice in my six years!
Friday afternoon school finished early and we had hymn practice. We all went to chapel to practice any tricky hymns coming up soon, in the Autumn term we practiced for the Carol Service.

Main change in the summer was that we did lessons straight after lunch and had longer for All Out.

As the comments from Horsham have shown, I'm sure there were variations from house to house.

We bathed three times a week, according to a list. Until the VI form, and sometimes even then, we were in dormitories af 16 of all ages.

I concur wuth you Katharine. Except that I remember marching to breakfast and lunch throughout my time at Hertford - other than on Sundays after gravel crunching, but that was only in my last 2-3 years. (I think)