Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Certainly Bob Rae was known as a thrower of things, but not for his bad temper. The worst-tempered master at the time was A.L.Johnstone, but he never threw anything. Or maybe Macnutt, but he never threw anything either (I doubt if he was fit enough).

jhopgood wrote:

J.R. wrote:Bob Rae used to use blackboard rubbers, if memory serves !

It was nearly always chalk when I was in his class.
As a man of habit, he always threw his brief case on to the desk as he came in, but stopped this when someone opened the window and the the brief case ended up outside.


NT Fryer had a bit of a temper, throwing a whole pile of books on to someone who, not having noticed his arrival, didn't stand up when he came in.
I have difficulty in remembering any masters who had a bad temper, in fact, in some cases they appeared less able to control us than we them.
Pupils disappearing under sinks in Matthews classes, trains with the movable desks in someone else's, pupils disappearing when the master (Biddick) was late in arriving, covering the back of the blackboard with photos taken from a cheaper version of Playboy (Bibby), and amazingly nothing was ever said.
Mind you, from some of the other masters had some quite cruel verbal put downs.

1. DING-DONG ! I remember that particular incident, oh so well, John. He always used to stride, full-steam into the class.

2. Strangely enough, he never used to seem to lose his temper in house as a housemaster. On the rugby pitch... Well, that was a different matter. I remember him grabbing a 'slow forward' by his rugby shirt collar and dragging him forcefully towards the point of play, screaming, (with Welsh accent), 'This is where you should be !!!!' I well remember who the poor unfortunate was, but modesty prevents....... (No - He doesn't post on here, thankfully !)

Reading all this makes us "girls" from Hertford realize the advantages of a girls' school in those days... no corporal punishment at all - mainly verbal or status (demotion from green aprons to black or black aprons to pinafores..)

Angela Pratt 56-63 wrote:Reading all this makes us "girls" from Hertford realize the advantages of a girls' school in those days... no corporal punishment at all - mainly verbal or status (demotion from green aprons to black or black aprons to pinafores..)

Please don't include this Hertford OB. Public humiliation, isolation, ridicule, bullying - oh yes, such an advantage to be a girl back then...

I'm definitely with Ann on this one - the kind of psychological abuse that happened to some girls at Hertford had far more lasting effects than the short sharp shock of corporal punishment.

On the other hand, there was also the atmosphere reflected by Caron Scott on the latest Hertford Memories thread. Thank you Maria for reminding me of that!

My pleasure!

Facebook has it's uses!

sejintenej wrote:

michael scuffil wrote:I don't think Peter Austin Jones ever beat anyone. I would be surprised if Michael Cherniavsky did, though as a senior housemaster, he would have been sorely tempted. Was anyone here ever beaten by Chern? Or Tim Law?

Not sure which Mr Jones that was; if it was the senior housemaster of Prep A he certainly did - virtually every boy in one of the dorms in one session

Different Jones. The Prep A Jones was M.H. ("Mighty Hitter") Jones - not the P.A. Jones referred to above.

His colleague in Preb B - my house master - was G.W. ("Great Whacker") Pink. But he was, I think, a gentler soul.

DavebytheSea wrote:His colleague in Preb B - my house master - was G.W. ("Great Whacker") Pink. But he was, I think, a gentler soul.

Is that meant to be a euphemism?

I remember that Miss Stella M. Bays, Junior Housemistress of Prep A in 1942 who married J.H. Edwards later that year used to beat boys. Presumably she was only following the practice of her two colleagues, M.H. Jones and Gordon Wilfred Pink. Was it true that she used a high heeled shoe to do this?
Chris Bartlett.

I knew Mrs Edwards later in life, and I simply cannot imagine her owning any high-heeled shoes.

A somewhat belated comment on the corporal punishment page ..
Michael Cherniavsky was my housemaster at Barnes B for most of my time at CH – a shy, gentle man whom I held and hold in high regard.

One of my own worst offences was in the summer term when I was taking my O Levels: together with an acquaintance from another house – whose name, to my shame, totally escapes me now –  we 'borrowed' a tent from the Scouts and camped out for a night in the wood by Sharpenhurst, for fun.
My co-absconder had taken the precaution of telling someone in his house what he was up to; I had assumed this would be bad tactics. He was right and I was wrong!
When I snuck back into the dormitory early next morning, I discovered that I had been missed, and reported missing. Chern and the Jr Housemaster (who must have been Pat Cullen, I think) were afraid that I had freaked out under the pressure of exams, and after consulting the Headmaster, Seaman, the school got in touch with the police. Who came out with search parties, dogs, etc.
Interestingly, they apparently searched those woods, but didn't find us.
Poor Chern was very upset – far more, I think, because he had been genuinely worried about me, than because of the disciplinary offence. He grounded me for the rest of term (which I recall as being around two weeks).
Now THAT was a harsh punishment – no concerts, none of all the special things that went on at the end of the summer.
But then at midday I was summoned to the Headmaster, and given six strokes of the cane. I remember that the cane whipped right round my back and caught me on the ribs as well as the bum - hard as well as soft.
Michael Cherniavsky, bless him, when he heard that Seaman had administered a corporal penalty, immediately called me back in and cancelled his own punishment. On balance, I definitely felt that the grounding would have been the harsher penalty.

As for Chern's later replacement by C J Miller: Seaman didn't trust Chern to maintain adequate discipline, and put Miller in instead to bring Barnes B back to order. Miller certainly administered corporal punishment, and my own recollection of him is as rather a bully, though with middle-aged hindsight maybe that is slightly unfair.

We can't discuss corporal punishment without mentioning Bob Sillet who was notorious for giving "tangents" to miscreants in his science lessons; only slighly worse than him asking "Have I promised you a test?" Was "Bend down, face east, stay down for six"... Ouch!!

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Can't say that I agree but others may differ