An important letter

This section was setup in August 2018 in order to move the existing related discussions from other sections into this new section to group them together, and separate from the other CH-related topics.

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robert totterdell
GE (Great Erasmus)
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2018 4:58 pm
Real Name: Mr Robert G S Totterdell

An important letter

Post by robert totterdell »

Hi All

The following is a letter that I have written which Julian has kindly tried to arrange for me to attach, but because I am old and useless I've just copied it from Word! The letter has been sent to my legal team, the police as well as other contcats who are Old Blues supporting me but do not uswe this site.

Hi Richard
I am following up on your draft statement but I felt the need to address certain issues in a more public way and thus I will copy this to others.
Last night I undertook a 12-course dinner party for 5 of my friends here who know what happened to me and, I suppose, the case.
Their support, along with others, has been critical for me.
It is from their input that I feel it is right to write to you concerning the issues at CH and to allow others to know. They are younger, graduates and undergraduates, who find the whole thing quite incredible. They get it and understand it but don’t get why it was allowed to happen.
I will provide a more detailed second statement about Mr. Burr’s rape against me, although it must be clearly understood that at that time I didn’t even know what ‘Rape’ meant – in fact I had no sexual knowledge at all.
CH provided a form of sex education later – much later (I would have been 16 for that) and it was with Rev Hall-Matthews (the chaplain from Maine who explained how wonderful ‘sex’ was. We found this amusing as he had loads of kids so it couldn’t have been that bad).
It was at this time that I finally realised what had happened to me and that it was not normal.
You must understand that most of us – well about 90% - came from poor or underprivileged backgrounds, even if our parents had achieved in their life themselves.
The school in my time was daunting and threatening with a culture of extreme corporal abuse.
‘Remember Boy the school is your father, your mother etc. etc.’
You have read the application form from my mother which I cannot write here but which formerly hands me over as a young boy to the CH authorities in trust until they so desire to release me.
Simply they owned me. Simply they failed me in their ownership.
Whatever I think of Peter Burr is whatever I think which for me is nothing at all – I just can’t let it out. What I think about the school and its authorities is another matter.
No one to help or support. No one to talk to. An institution so stuck in its own establishment that it was unable to defend the very rights of the pupils in its trust but able to allow extreme ‘chastisement’ and sexual abuse on an on-going basis not just in my time but far beyond.
Headmaster after Headmaster allowed sexual abuse and, in certain cases, used it, as well as extreme corporal punishment for their own sexual gratification.
When questions were asked, Headmaster after Headmaster tried to cover up the problem by ‘keeping it in-house’.

They lied to everyone – I guess to cover their own backs. They allowed the heads of houses and the deputy heads of the School to lie too, and manipulate the students or pupils, to ensure that the very dirty secret of CH was not allowed out.
I suppose my question, no demand is, why will the school not just say a simple word – SORRY?
I have received several letters from both the HM and the Chair of the Governing Council, all of which say sorry but in a contrite way. There needs to be a general apology and they need to face it and deal with it as a corrupt and institutionalised establishment.
So what about the Foundation. A little boy king just 13 years old. Did he think that the foundation was based on cruelty in punishment and sexual abuse? I doubt it. Did Charles II think that when he founded the Mathematical School at CH for the newly founded Royal Navy that ‘it’s OK if you b****r the boys or rape the girls’? NO, HE DID NOT.
The school has fundamentally failed in its duty of trust to the original two foundations. They became inept and incompetent in their duties of care.
They should be ashamed of their woeful administration over some 32 years, but which I will state now is some 70 years, and they must apologise – simply say sorry. What makes this matter worse is that I believe and understand that some of the perpetrators of abuse at the school are still employed.
A new brush is needed to sweep away the --- ‘old sh1t’!
I hope this helps to see where I am coming from and I will fight all of the ways, not for me, but for others who went through the hell of CH.
However, I will leave on a positive note – it was not really some of the masters that were good, and there were many, at CH that made my life. It was the pupils who became friends, over many years. They are the life and blood of CH -the masters and governors are just passing through.
I hope that this helps.

With best wishes

Rob
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