Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I am researching the Flying Bomb/Doodlebug/V-1 which landed and exploded near the C.H. Infirmary at about 5a.m. on 29 June 1944. It came within an ace of inflicting a major catastrophe, but thankfully caused only one minor injury and some relatively minor physical damage. Although eyewitnesses will ...

"why the school these days has to employ what seem to be dedicated staff in sports, arts, drama, etc" You are correct that many academic masters took on secondary roles, especially in sport, but, even so, I think that you are being a little unfair, or, perhaps, you memory is playing you false (as ha...

Concerning masters in the Manual School, I remember the arrival of Mr Ingledew in about 1951-53. He was also the Junior Housemaster in Lamb B, which was my house, and why I remember him. The reason for mentioning him is that I recall very clearly being told that he was the first master in the Manual...

Loringa,
Yes, you are quite correct, the term 'non-foundationers' was the correct CH name for such pupils.
David

Like Loringa, I find myself, to my surprise, agreeing with the general thrust of Mr Redshaw's comments. As a matter of historical interest, C.H. has admitted what amounted to fee-payers from Day One. They attended the school, but were not on the roll - which is why it is difficult on occasions to ve...

" He also had expressive nicknames for almost all the boys whom he knew. These included Blossom, Henscold, Berkshire, Liz, Fuffinch, Percival, Gubbins, Weasel and Cow (for his senior sergeant, whom he greatly respected) ." One name I recall was 'Death' which apparently was due to the boy's jet black...

David O'Meara's death was rather sad. Three retired C.H. masters, all living in single flats in Horsham, used to meet on Friday evenings for a pint (or two), something to eat and a long, long chat. One was Bob Rae, one was David O'Meara, but the name of the third I never knew. Anyway, one Friday Dav...

I believe that the true progenitor of the PSG was John Twitchin (MaA 1952-60). John's father had been killed while serving in the RAF during the war and John became one of the four first four to be admitted to C.H. under Sir Barnes Wallis's RAF Foundation in 1951. John told me that he objected stron...

Should this not be moved to the 'reminiscences' section?
David

Bob Rae was CO of the CCF when I was in the Army and responsible for liaison with the school. He is a real gentleman and I had a lot of respect for him. When I last heard of him, which was about 3-4 years ago, he was living in a flat in Horsham.
David

Oliver,
Thank you. I shall not pursue this subject further, fascinating as it might be. Anyway, I had - and retain - too much respect for Pongo Littlefield as a teacher.
David

Oliver says:
"But he did have a curious characteristic. Either he always wore a jock strap or his ‘wedding tackle’ was unusually small."

I have no wish to be prurient, but how on earth did you know that?

David

I remember Pongo Littlefield with great respect. He taught me more about English grammar than any English language teacher and then taught me German. I recall 'Deutsches Leben' (with yellow covers) and 'Emil und die Detektive'. As a result of his excellent grounding I spent a month on an exchange vi...

Both Ian Allen himself and his company were very generous to Christ's Hospital, doing much work for free and where they had to charge keeping it down to the minimum. They designed and typeset two of my books f.o.c. and did a splendid job. It was a very sad day when they ceased their printing busines...

AMP
Thanks. Will do,
David