The Charge - has it been changed?

[Great Plum]

I may have solved it thanks once again to Geraint Jennings excellent website:

http://user.itl.net/~geraint/christshospital.html

On it he includes not only the Foundation hymn and the votum, but also a number of prayers in use in the Chapel including this:

O Lord, who has taught us that from those to whom much is given much will be required, grant us that we, whose lot is cast in so goodly an heritage, may steadfastly strive to extend to others what we so richly have enjoyed; and that as we have entered into the labours of other men, others in turn may enter into ours, to the fulfilment of thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


.... but I am still interested in the Charge. When was it started? by whom?
The history of CH is supposed to be better documented than any other school, but simple questions such as this, or even "When and why did the broady buckle migrate from bow to stern" remain unanswered.

Now this prayer may still be in use today.

That prayer is the Christ's Hospital collect isn't it?

Was in use when I was at CH...

[blondie95]

I love the foundation hymn, especially remember singing it at leavers service with Plum's dad behind us making up different words to do with us to stop us from crying as we were all sobbing by then!

[sejintenej]

I love the foundation hymn, especially remember singing it at leavers service with Plum's dad behind us making up different words to do with us to stop us from crying as we were all sobbing by then!

Yes, an exceptioinal piece of music, on a par (IMHO) with Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory and perhaps Battle Hymn of the Republic.

If you want to include Abide With Me amongst your best such hymns , please do so - it has sad memories for me.

[englishangel]

http://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/81.html

does this help?

[jhopgood]

Whilst walking the dog I always have lots of time for what I call, freelance thinking, rather than pondering the problems of the day.
CH is full of different sections, societies etc, and I wondered who should be responsible for keeping the charge alive.
Any thoughts?

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

The Charge is not in my bible --- "Gift" etc. dated July 1945 --- presented April 1946 --- (Rugby and Swimming !)

Which I don't think could happen these days !!

Or perhaps it was because I was so Lovely, that they couldn't bear to lose me ?

[CHAZ]

I used to stick in the charge and also the paper that read A Gift from the Governors of Christs Hospital.

The charge went on the inside cover of the Bible and Prayer book...the latter by the way were only offered to School Monitors. The other paper opposite...

I used to write the names of all recipients on the paper and I'm sure Vier Blieu has his Bible with my scrawl in it.

For my own Bible it was Paul Deller - one time Art teacher at CH - who wrote my name in 1984.

I should try and scan this one day and get the info here.

[Vonny]

The charge went on the inside cover of the Bible and Prayer book...

Or upside down on the very last page as is the case with mine!

And, on another note, they also got the initial for my second name wrong on the house monitor board in BaB

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

What "House Monitor Board" in Ba B ?

Have I been denied Fame --- as well as Fortune ??

[Fjgrogan]

When the Great Merger happened in 1985 the monitresses' boards from the houses/wards at Hertford were taken to Horsham and divided up amongst the houses there. I forget which boards are now in which houses, but then it doesn't really affect me as I never reached such dizzy heights, having left in the Lower Sixth.

[Katharine]

And, on another note, they also got the initial for my second name wrong on the house monitor board in BaB

We didn't get our middle initials at all, just the usual Christian name. (Trying to think here one of my year used her second name and not her first, I am pretty sure she has that name and no initial)

Frances will remember Elisabeth Powell-Cullingford, she just got E. not enough space for her double barrelled surname.

[Fjgrogan]

I do indeed remember Elisabeth - and the fact that she was spelt with an 's' not the customary 'z'. Since both Katharine and I have names which are frequently misspelt we do tend to remember such things!! (I often find myself quoting 'i as in him and e as in her' to explain the spelling of my first name - I object to people who give me a sex change!). My daughter Kirri recently had problems renewing her passport, because she has three forenames (as does her daughter) - we are not allowed to call them Christian names now, even when they are! - and they did not fit into the number of boxes provided on the form. Although it asked for full name, she was advised to enter just her first name and surname, and add the others further down the form, under 'any other information'. The baby has Grogan as her third forename, and her father's surname, but for form-filling purposes it would perhaps simplify matters if she treated it as a double barrelled surname? Why do we need boxes on forms anyway? Clearly the CH Hertford signwriter had a far simpler job!

[jhopgood]

Why do we need boxes on forms anyway?

Probably to do with the fact that a machine has to scan it, and the machine will recognise the box, without worrying about the contents.
I had an employee once who had to sign in a box to give him an authorised signature for the bank. This was in 1981. He had a very flowery signature which didn't look as though it would easily fit in the box.
After a while, he came along to me with a squiggle in the box, that had no relationship to his signature.
When I asked him what it was, he informed me that he had changed his signature as his would not fit in the box.
It took him nearly 3 hours before he got a reasonable facsimile of his signature in the box, and only then because I threatened not to authorise it unless he got his brain into gear.

[sejintenej]

Why do we need boxes on forms anyway?

Probably to do with the fact that a machine has to scan it, and the machine will recognise the box, without worrying about the contents.
I had an employee once who had to sign in a box to give him an authorised signature for the bank. This was in 1981. He had a very flowery signature which didn't look as though it would easily fit in the box.
After a while, he came along to me with a squiggle in the box, that had no relationship to his signature.
When I asked him what it was, he informed me that he had changed his signature as his would not fit in the box.
It took him nearly 3 hours before he got a reasonable facsimile of his signature in the box, and only then because I threatened not to authorise it unless he got his brain into gear.

After a forgery attempt, I have two quite different official signatures - one for professional use which like yours has been copied around the world and another for private use. Interesting trying to register my signature on behalf of the bank when I was in Brazil because they compared it with my passport which was very different. Another problem with that was they wanted to register my UK Identity card number. Passport numbers change every 10 years so no good. I didn't think of my national insurance number (I don't know it anyway) so the only number I could think of was my wartime ID number but CH retained my ID card (I think). They accepted that. About 5 years ago the Americans software gurus in Whitehall banned me from using it, giving me another huge NHS number instead.

[J.R.]

So gone are the days when you used to put your mark, 'X' ??