Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

J.R. wrote: ↑Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:52 pmWhy the Sicker though ? I can only assume you were out of the way and could'nt communicate with anyone.

Sounds about right, personally I couldn't think of a place at CH I'd less like to visit so it would have been a good way of keeping people separate before they got picked up/given a ticket for the early train.

J.R. wrote: ↑Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:52 pmWho collected up all your amassed personal property ?

Or more likely, who would hide/steal your contraband knowing you wouldn't be back for it

I was eased out by Tom Keeley for being a "disruptive influence on the house" . I was being interviewed about my smoking and mentioned that I was considering leaving at the end of Easter term. His reply was to suggest that as half term was so close I shouldn't come back afterwards. I was invited back for the leaving service so I can't claim expulsion.
There was a drugs scandal just after I left, so 71 or 72 when there were exclusions and expulsions and banning of certain OBs , myself included.

Gingerbeard17 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 18, 2018 2:57 pm I was eased out by Tom Keeley for being a "disruptive influence on the house" ..

Yes, Ginger hair (and no beard in those days) could be described as disruptive influence if the person is being teased / beaten up as a result. What a b..... awful excxuse for "easing someone out"! I wonder what the current headmaster would say if you complained and demanded your untaught years, A level exams (perhaps even S level) etc. now in recompense!

Yes, Ginger hair (and no beard in those days) could be described as disruptive influence if the person is being teased / beaten up as a result. What a b..... awful excxuse for "easing someone out"

To be fair the previous 5 years were the bullying years, I went from 2A to LEC in a nose dive towards GCE disaster., my first relatively settled year was in general deps (old 5th form). The term previous to my leaving I spent a huge chunk in the sicker on librium and amitriptyline and gave up 2 A levels . So that last half term i had too much free time and may have been more than a little disruptive....
I have learned to live with and sometimes beat the depression that I am sure resulted from those first 5 years and have some good memories of my time there.

For the record, Sharpenhurst barn stood close to the old reservoir building and was burned down way back in my own day, 1970s, rendering the Sharpenhurst skyline much less memorable thereafter.

The copse next to Sharpenhurst was called Eastlands Copse, not Eastwood Copse. Or have even the names of the copses been dumbed down since my day?

Eastmans

Eastland Copse is a forest or wood in West Sussex
Parish/Community: Itchingfield
District/Borough: Horsham
County: West Sussex
Region: South East
Eastman is not a copse or wood anywhere I can find.

Odd.
Known universally as Eastmans for at least the last 20 years.

Eastlands during my time....

michael scuffil wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:40 pm Clarence used the cane on a friend of mine who later became house captain. His offence was to camp out one night and, worse still, have half the West Sussex police comb the county for him. He was in fact in Eastlands Copse.

This from another thread entirely. Michael Scuffil attended CH in the1950s, so it appears the name Eastlands didn't start contorting until the 1980s at the very earliest, if then. Probably by 2050 it'll be called Eels Copse and no-one'll have the first clue why.

But then that's language and toponymics for you: continually in a state of flux. Hence the settlement of Beau Repaire (established 13th Century) now being called Bear Park. Completely and utterly mindless of course, but there it is.

As a bit of light-hearted relief on a Monday morning, and to pursue the names topic, why are the copses at either end of the Quarter Mile called 'East Gun Copse' and 'West Gun Copse', respectively?
David

This thread has taken off again in various directions in the week I've been away. But on the substantive issue: I recall coming back to (I think) a Lent Term in about 1957, and on the Saturday afternoon the whole school was summoned to Big School where Seaman announced that two boys had been expelled and another 'asked to leave' (he didn't publicly say who). Their offence was shoplifting. This was the only 'public' expulsion that took place in my time, though clearly there were other expulsions.
Someone I knew well was expelled for taking pornographic photos in Lamb A lav end, and was foolish enough to hang the negatives out to dry on the bars of the air passage, where they attracted the attention of a passing authority.
Another person with a very promising academic career was expelled for what were then sexual offences under the law of the land. As a result, he never went to university, though he appears regularly in OB news and appears to have done well (and not to harbour a grudge).
A friend of mine was summoned to see Seaman who said: 'If you are prepared to leave at the end of term, I am prepared to write a not altogether frank testimonial.' (He organized the Housey Hot Five jazz quintet, but I'm not sure if that was his offence.)

Foureyes wrote: ↑Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:45 am As a bit of light-hearted relief on a Monday morning, and to pursue the names topic, why are the copses at either end of the Quarter Mile called 'East Gun Copse' and 'West Gun Copse', respectively?
David

This was answered in another thread a while back. There used to be guns there (de-commissioned artillery pieces).

Uncle Kirby, who was commissioned into the Royal Signals during WWII, spent the aftermath of the D Day landings wandering Gold and Juno beaches collecting abandoned ordnance and radio trolleys. He then shipped them back on an unladen landing craft back to CH.

He also came back from a summer CCF camp at Shorncliffe, Kent in the late 1950s with a huge anti-tank two-man bazooka (but no ammo!!!) which was surplus to requirements there. We trundled it out on CCF afternoons after we got bored with dismantling the Bren guns.
One Sunday morning we had a morse session with Uncle where he had us calculating the optimum length of the aerial for a particular ham-radio frequency, then we strung the 200+ metres of wire up in the lime trees, then managed to communicate by morse with a ham radio operator in Singapore! This was with Uncle's specially tweaked 22 set (ex a Sherman tank) - heuristic learning about the Heaviside layer.
The amount of random ex-D Day stuff he had was fascinating. He let me 'borrow' a 19 set with spare battery packs to go off in the woods to listen to Radio Luxembourg on the 49.2MHz short wave band. No rock'n'roll ban that I remember...

Actually, the names predate Kirby. In 1920-21 the War Office presented some ex-German guns to schools whose OTCs (CCFs) had contributed a significant number of ex-pupils to the Army during the late war. C.H. received two which were sited at either end of the Quarter Mile. Then, in 1939-40 when the country was desperately short of steel the War Office took them back again and melted them down! Only the names remain!
David!