Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Particularly as the school as not broached the subject in any correspondence, and there is an ongoing public inquiry regarding Ball / the Diocese of Chichester, / sexual abuse in the Church of England etc , I thought it would be useful to establish a thread for anyone who wished to post about known or suspected links between Bishop Peter Ball and Christ's Hospital, i.e. when did he attend the school, did he take Confirmation services or did he lead smaller classes in less pubic settings etc? When were pupils encouraged to visit him in his accommodation? Who invited him? What was Dobbie's involvement etc.

Can anyone remember if Ball was linked to a place called Micklepage? He may not have been at all.

It would be incredibly helpful to understand as much detail as possible so as to better understand this subject.

Agree that links between Ball, Dobbie, CoE (still find it odd he's not been referred to as Revd.) absolutely need to be investigated. Let's avoid speculation though, and anything which is of substance should absolutely be reported to the police if feel able.

J

Hi - definitely to avoid speculation etc.

I am mainly interested in an exercise in establishing concrete links ie." I remember Ball attending CH in XXX and taking XXX service in Chapel" would be useful, so that we can better understand the extent and depth of his links surely. Some people will have concrete memories and will be kind enough to share them.

This forum should not be used to report crimes, Balls attendance at confirmations etc would of course not be a crime, but part of the grooming process nonetheless

Absolutely agree, well put.

In Peele A in the early 1980s, I remember a visit from a Bishop chap and I am pretty certain it was Peter Ball when he was Bishop of Lewes. Anyway, he came into the day room, probably of a summer evening, and, well, as the saying goes 'Jesus is coming, look busy', but out of courtesy some of us had a chat with him and I was at the snooker table and I offered to play a few shots with him, it was probably snooker as I have a vague memory of going upstairs and telling someone I'd just played snooker with a bishop. I don't remember if he potted any balls, as it were, but we had a polite chat and he wandered off somewhere. As this was a senior house, we were probably nowhere on his radar and v.v.

I think that he might have given a Grecians' lecture or something like that, but I may be mistaken. I do recall some bishop chap giving a talk and affecting some modesty and insecurity, then reminding himself that he was a Bishop, but I think it would have been one of those 'Lords Spiritual' who sit in the Lords.

I was confirmed by him in Lent Term 83 I think (might have been 84), IIRC he did confirmations for several years as our local bishop. I was prepared for confirmation by Mike Porteous, who has also been convicted for activity in the 70’s (before CH) which I find amazing - All of the other recent convicts had something about them at school that was different, but I never felt that about Porteous.

Thank you both and thank you Julian for your characteristically helpful reply.

I hadn't heard Porteous' name before. This appears to be him.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p ... 79975.html

Do we know what Dobbie did before CH?

Could it link him to Ball?

Crockford’s history:-
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5146&start=62

I posted this on another thread yesterday. I don’t recall the year exactly but Ball confirmed my sister at CH sometime between 1991 and 1993.

Very disturbing but eloquent witness statement re Peter Ball. CH & others get a mention at paragraph 14.

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/ ... 000328.pdf

My sister was confirmed by Peter Ball & for over 20 years our mother had a picture in her front room of my sister with Ball on her confirmation day. It was hastily removed when I told my mother of his conviction.

These sorts of people flourished because they were simply moved on when caught.

Ball will have been active for years.

One of the curious features of paedophiles is that they do not slow down as they get older. Burr, for example, is in his 70s but he is still assessed as posing a significant risk of causing serious harm (probably to teenage boys). Luckily he wins a prize for the hat which is an extended sentence.

I was also confirmed/baptised by Ball around 1983/4 & being a religious little boy at the time, I was aware he came to CH a fair bit as Dobbie's guest, holding Compline services etc. My Mum told me a story a few years ago, whereby she came to a Chapel service one time & remembered me coming to talk to her afterwards a bit flustered & saying that I'd just been talking to the Bishop of Lewes & he'd been telling us dirty jokes, which I was a bit freaked out by. From what I know, boys who were struggling with life at CH were quite often sent down to stay with him in his house as well.

Given what we now know about how committed a paedophile he was, and that Dobbie has now been found guilty of being the same, it is difficult to see how they weren't in cahoots. Strange times.

Ball did my confirmation in 1981 if I recall correctly. At that time the 3 Chaplains were Robson, Atkinson and Godfrey Hall. Robson went off to Wellington to join Newsome and Atkinson and Hall were then joined by Porteous.

I was also confirmed by him in about '88.

Dobbie used to send pupils to stay with Ball over the holidays - especially if they couldn't go home for one reason or another.

Hi Chaps

Eer been out of the loop a bit - Peter Ball originally was a monk of his and his brothers own order, down in Sussex. He became Bishop of Lewis. He was not 'a favourite of the later Bishop of Chichester' although he had been with the previous. He ran a strange institution (with his brother (twin)) and various schools (public) used him to help children with certain boarding school difficulties such as 'homesickness'.

CH under headmasters Seaman and Newsome (and others) allowed pupils to spend time at his 'retreat' where the regime was harsh, no, very harsh. At that point, no one officially knew he was a Paedophile - that is other than those who sent pupils to him.

There were immense difficulties when he was appointed Bishop of Lewis under Chichester.

Eventually, he was removed due to irregularities and went to the Diocese of Gloucester. This was against the then Bishop of Gloucester wishes. He (and his twin brother) set up a new foundation very close to the border of the Wells & Bath diocese.

Cairncross sent pupils to his new establishment both from CH and after she was transferred to Wells Cathedral School.

Work it out chaps it is not difficult.

The link for me is not what I have found out but the boy I knew at CH in Maine A who spent a very bad Christmas break with Peter Ball.

Stand back and think - it might have been you or your closest friend.

This is what I have been fighting about - an institution out of control where individuals pretty much do as they want or see fit. It has changed but the past must be remembered for a lot of victims - just 25 now but there are hundreds (and I mean that) more.