Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

During the 1940s and 50s only the term ‘Masters’ was used, not ‘Teachers.’ To include another period in this thread - during the 40s and very early 50s there were a few female teachers, relics of the many war time female replacements of males, who were then in short supply. They taught only the lowe...

In a recent article published in The Paris Review , on the value of puns (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/11/15/in-defense-of-puns/) there are the following two passages. Charles Lamb once remarked that, when the time came for him to leave this earth, his fondest wish would be to draw his l...

Is there anywhere else in developed Europe where all this entry gymnastics cobblers exists? People seem to deal with secondary and tertiary education and get their uni places in a reasonably straightforward manner. And do they do any worse than us as a country? Perhaps someone with personal knowled...

… it's my understanding that member-only groups don't tend to get scraped by Google etc. and thus provide a minor level of privacy compared to completely open groups.

Question – What does “scraped” mean here?

It seems highly, highly unlikely, but one never knows.

Was the Peter Knight mentioned above, Peter Luke Knight, Barnes A, 1948-54, who left CH for a distinguished career in the services?

In the late 40s and the 50s the ‘swill bins’ were simply called ‘pig bins’ where I lived and they mainly contained potato peelings. These bins were emptied by the usual garbage collectors (called ‘dustmen’ then, in a less elegant town than Farnham, Surrey), for behind their lorry there was an open t...

Friends have chosen Tonbridge School for their son, assuring me that it is an old and excellent school. (I was surprised to learn it’s one year younger than Housey with the same founder.) Together we looked up one of the (many) internet sites which rate UK schools. These sites use different criteria...

Thanks for this informative posting. For those interested in Occitan there are films in that language; most recently a 2017 film with French subtitles. It is entitled, “Dins la votz dels segles” or in French, “Dans la voix des siècles.”

The above sort of language divergence also occurred between French-French and Canadian-French. Both languages were identical in the 18th century, when “catin“ (= poupée) meant a child’s female doll in both countries. But their forms of language diverged until radio, films, TV, etc slowed such drifti...

There is an article of interest to forum members in the Times Educational Supplement (TES), published on 9 June 2017, available at https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/when-exclusive-inclusive Don’t read the article for nostalgic reasons only, but to learn that CH is a pioneer in this...

I’m pleased, Katharine, your software could understand the three dots and got straight to the correct web page. I presume this is true for all other forum readers, for there have been no further comments. However I have tried many times, always with the same result. Using the abbreviated (3 dots) ve...

Thanks Michael, for your diligent research and informing us of its results. I was wrong and clearly the Michael Cherniavsky of the book review (named simply Michael Cherniavsky and not Michael Theodore Cherniavsky) was not ours. They do look alike and have similar glasses. Perhaps they are related. ...

Although I haven’t read the Kantorowicz book, nor even the extracts on the internet, I am sure the photo is of our MTC. Also Cherniavsky is a very unusual name and I have never come across it (apart from MTC, his father and his brother, a few years younger who was also at Oxford). The MTC of the rev...

In the Times Literary Supplement of 24 Feb 2017 there is a book review containing a prominent photo of a young Michael Cherniavsky, with another medieval historian. However don’t rush to read it to learn more about the Chern, for the review is of Ernest Kantorowicz: a Life, (by Robert E Lerner and p...

Yes John, that was quite correct. It arose from a donation given by the UK government to Sir Barnes Wallis for his meritorious war effort. These contributions went far beyond the Dam Busters’ bombs which destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams. Barnes Wallis gave all this money to CH and so the RAF Founda...