Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

The merits (or otherwise) of independent (i.e. 'public') schools has been discussed off-and-on across this Forum, usually under totally unrelated headings. I would like to draw attention to the recently published book 'Public Schools and the Second World War," by David Walsh and Anthony Seldon....

".. .Sorry but you have lost me with the word "foundationers" ." In olden times, the term 'foundationers' was applied to those admitted to C.H. under the terms of the original 'foundation' (i.e., charter.) This covered something like 97-98 percent of those at the school whose par...

" Surely this is not entirely correct. I certainly remember boys who went to the RN College at Dartmouth throughout the 1950s, who left CH at the usual leaving age (eg Robert Griffiths of Col B who was a button grecian and often contributed to this Forum). " Perhaps I was a few years out. ...

"...he complained that there had been a growth in parents wanting to live their lives through their children and pushing them on." I am not criticizing rockfreak, but is that new? I think that there have always been parents who seek to ensure that their children progress in life. Maybe, n...

There was a boy in the same house as me with a deformed hand. He was a very nice guy and, to the best of my recollection, his disability was never an issue, nor indeed a subject for discussion, for any reason. In fact, there was one matter for which we envied him, because he had a watch as the strap...

Many years ago and in a different existence I was the official keeper of the list of 'holes-in-the-ground.' From that I learnt two things. The first was that there were many more such holes than the public knew about, although most have since been declassified. The second was that there could be man...

Thank you Charles. A really interesting article with superb illustrations, which I have read with great enjoyment. In my time (1948-55) we used the Tube to march to Dining Hall when it was raining, with one of the side-rooms for storing trunks, and (I think) a drying room for wet sports clothes - an...

As a matter of curiosity, what do today's pupils do, in this era of mobile phones, smart phones, skype, emails, etc, etc? Or has the weekly written missive to one's parents (i.e.,'letter writing') been consigned to history?
David

I agree (as usual) with John Hopgood: " I seem to remember being chucked out of the house from 2.30 to about 4.00pm on a Sunday afternoon and then doing letter writing until going up to Dining Hall for tea. " That was how it was also in Lamb B 1949-55. If I remember correctly one had to ha...

If you choose to re-post something from a third party then you are taking responsibility for it.
DM

I am sure that sentinenej thinks that he is very amusing, but having been in the Army for 32 years the vast majority of those remarks just do not ring true. For a start the heading is 'military;' which implies Army, so all those referring to ships, submarines, flying, etc can be disregarded. Secondl...

I have now completed my research into the Flying Bomb and sent copies to the Museum and the Library to whom any further queries should be addressed. However, I would like to thank all those Old Blues who helped me with memories and information. I have now moved on.
David

In the early 1950s there were two sergeants. I can picture them both, but am somewhat hazy on the details of their duties. Sergeant Fielder was a somewhat taciturn character who, with his wife, ran the post office and also acted as a sort-of major domo for the Head Master on ceremonial occasions. He...

I note that rockfreak seems to be under the impression that he speaks for England - note his use of 'our' and 'we.' Well, he doesn't. He is entitled to his own views, as is any individual in this country that he so often derides, but that does not entitle him to generalise to include the whole natio...

There really seems to be no limit to the subjects that 'rockfreak' dislikes, with England, the English and Christ's Hospital leading the field. Of course, the English have caricatures of foreigners, but so, too, does every nation that I can think of. I worked in Glasgow for three very happy years, b...