Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I think loringa is right. CH appears to have the problem of many an institution, being run for the benefit of those who work there. Sports facilities? You have grass, lots of it, that is enough for almost all sports with a few bits of kit like poles, goals and paint. Considering how Spartan CH was b...

In the early 1980s, I do recall a chartered train taking us from Horsham to IIRC Cannon Street (probably I was in the UF or GE) to see the Lord Mayor and being presented with a packet of freshly-minted coins, the amount I'm not sure, maybe one 10p and one 5p piece (three shillings in old money), and...

A very sad story, I remember some boys in the late 70s who simply could not cope with boarding and it must have been horrible. However, the feelings of rejection by parents it is not really something to lay at the door of CH even if it was the 'enabler', it is a choice ultimately made by parents. So...

I did science A-levels at CH, followed by a biological sciences degree and a spell as a research assistant to fund a law conversion course. Was my science wasted? No, as I take great interest in science and can sniff out BS readily. There was no law option at CH but some books on general law in the ...

I was called various things but those I remember were 'Zanussi' around LE as I was good at science, especially chemistry from the slogan 'the appliance of science' and in GE onwards 'fridge' because I was so cold.

This Daily Telegraph article deals with the recent history of abuse at that establishment, chilling echoes. It is behind a paywall but on an iPhone you can 'Download linked file' and read the text on the file.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... e-scandal/

When you see how ChatGPT plays chess, as in https://youtu.be/rSCNW1OCk_M?t=435 it is black, it has some way to go. It makes up moves, it removes pieces as it sees fit and it swaps pieces around.

This story about Tony sums up all that was good about CH. Pupils showing a maturity, generosity and kindness beyond their years to help someone less fortunate. I am trying to picture the scene, the intrusion of the ramshackle culture of the early 1970s into the House, prog rock playing along the cor...

I will tell you two things about the Dambusters raid that were not mentioned in the film. 1) 1200 civilians were killed, most of them forced labourers from Poland. 2) The Möhne Dam was rebuilt within four months. The other two were barely scratched. It achieved nothing. It was a horrific loss of li...

If rockfreak went to CH, he benefitted from slavery. So he should pay reparations.

Sell your possessions, hereditaments and worldly goods and enter a monastery in penance.

We will also have better forum into the bargain.

I learnt Spanish whilst at CH, mainly self-taught, as my mother had gone to live in Spain, and I went out there on holidays. I can confidently say that if you understand one variety of Spanish you can understand all, the differences between and within Peninsular Spanish and (mainly) Latin America ar...

I recall the sausages - I suspect boiled rather than grilled (no browning) and nicknamed 'pregnant mice'. They were actually nice, and I agree, unique. The peeled tinned tomatoes that went with it had an even more distastefull alliterative nickname referring to monkeys... Further to my previous pos...

Regarding stamps in passports, AIUI, if you enter the Schengen area on a UK passport, you get stamped in at the port of entry and your 90 days in any 180-days, and stamped out when you leave the Schengen area. In the early 1980s, Spain and Portugal were outside the EEC, and spending much of the scho...

Thank you Katherine, a wonderful obituary. He was even on Warspite, and took an exam upstairs in a Brighton pub, clearly no harm done.

Thanks for posting this, a nice reminder of the good done by the Foundation before it was sullied in the 1970s onwards. In terms of that newspaper's paywall. It is a nuisance, but it has a right to set up its website as it sees fit, there is no such thing as a free lunch. However, I have found that ...