Housie firsts

[Kit Bartlett]

It would be interesting purely for historical reasons to find out the dates when the following were first
used at CH.
House Radios,
Television sets, either in Houses or a private residence. There was one in the Masters' Common Room at the time of the 1953 Coronation I know.
Telephones. What was the first number used either by a private house or the school office?
Computers.
Mobile telephones,
The first Motor Car or Motor cycle owned by a member of staff.

[J.R.]

I can only say that there was NO house radio or television in Coleridge B when I departed CHin the summer of 1963.

A public phone box in the corridor to the left of the dining-hall for pupils to phone home etc..

[sejintenej]

There was a house wireless (no radios in them thar days) in Col A: I think it was there when I joined in 1954
A monitor had radio and record player in his study in 1959 but I don't know about before

No TV in the dayroom or Kit's study in 1961 July. I don't think either junior housemaster had TV and no idea about matron.

[John Saunders]

Th.B always had a dayroom radio between 1948 and 1955. I had a v small Eveready portable from about 1953.Very short battery life so only managed 2 Radio Luxembourg programmes per term! JHGS

[J.R.]

Strange that during my time, some other houses had radios.

I seem to remember N.T. Fryer even trying to 'ban' the possesion of the new at the time, small tinny transistor radios which a lot of us had to listen to radio Luxenbourge under the bed clothes using a small ear-piece.

[Kit Bartlett]

I remember that a boy J.C. Longmuir in Coleridge A had his own home made wireless in one of the Coleridge A Changing Rooms and we all listened to the D Day landings broadcast in June 1944.
One of the junior House Masters also had a wireless in his study which had a connection into the day room.
I am sure had a number of other masters had cars pre war including A.C.W. Edwards.

[michael scuffil]

John Saunders says ThB had a dayroom radio in the 40s, and it was probably the same one as was there when I left in 1963. The rules regarding portable radios were changed in about 1959, as they started to become common. They were then restricted to Fifth form and above. I had a very definitely non-portable radio in my study, which followed me to Cambridge, but what happened to it after that I don't know.

Arthur Rider had a TV set in his room. I remember he invited people to watch the enthronement of Michael Ramsay as Archbishop of Canterbury (1958?).

The first time a master appeared at lunch without a jacket was Ron Lorimer in about 1961. It was the last time, too, for a very long time.

It would not surprise me if some masters had a car from the very first days at Horsham, but I'd be interested to know.

[J.R.]

John Saunders says ThB had a dayroom radio in the 40s, and it was probably the same one as was there when I left in 1963. The rules regarding portable radios were changed in about 1959, as they started to become common. They were then restricted to Fifth form and above. I had a very definitely non-portable radio in my study, which followed me to Cambridge, but what happened to it after that I don't know.

Arthur Rider had a TV set in his room. I remember he invited people to watch the enthronement of Michael Ramsay as Archbishop of Canterbury (1958?).

The first time a master appeared at lunch without a jacket was Ron Lorimer in about 1961. It was the last time, too, for a very long time.

It would not surprise me if some masters had a car from the very first days at Horsham, but I'd be interested to know.

If memory serves Michael, that would probably have been Ron's first year as I remember his arrival and I had him for Geography.

I would imagine that C.M.E.S. would have had a very quiet word in his ear, as he was a stickler for protocol. Probably the last H.M. to be like that.

[sejintenej]

I seem to remember that some boys made (or tried to make) whisker wirelesses, whether in some club or under Kirby's auspices.

[Kit Bartlett]

The Masters' Garages must have been built before the Second World War as they were destroyed by the Flying
Bomb in 1944. This implies that a fair number of the staff must have owned cars in the nineteen thirties.
I do remember listening to the Football results in the Coleridge B (not Coleridge A) Day room in March /April 1946 when Kit Aitken was Junior House Master before moving to Coleridge A in September.

[rockfreak]

I can only say that there was NO house radio or television in Coleridge B when I departed CHin the summer of 1963.

A public phone box in the corridor to the left of the dining-hall for pupils to phone home etc..

There was a house radio in the 1950s when I was there John. My first real political awakening - 1956. As we were doing our "prep" our deputy house captain called Atkinson came out of his study and announced in his laconic way that there seemed to be some rather interesting things happening in the middle east and that maybe we should put on the house radio and listen to the news. Atkinson was often laconic I remember; it's one of the things they teach you at public schools. So we listened as Britain invaded Egypt and caused massive damage and loss of life in attempting to seize back the Suez Canal. The Americans were furious. Russia was invading Hungary at the time to quell an anti-Communist rising and of course America's great ally invading one of its old "protectorates" in the middle east didn't exactly help America to take the high ground on behalf of the "free world". Anyway, Colonel Nasser sunk ships in the narrow canal and filled them with concrete so our trade route to the east was blocked anyway by the time our soldiers got there and we retired with the condemnation of the world ringing in our ears.
I think those of us who didn't have our heads completely up our backsides (or in the pages of the rabid right-wing press of the day) realised then that the days were ending when we could run gunboat diplomacy around the world. At least until God's representative on earth Tony Blair came along........

[michael scuffil]

I also remember the house radio being turned on during prep (the only time ever) for the Suez news (followed by a brief explanation from the house captain Anthony Arblaster).

I also remember Mrs Hurst explaining the crisis. The situation was fraught, she said, and '... then the Israelis, STUPID PEOPLE, choose this moment to invade'. In other words, she'd bought the government line, not realizing that the Israelis had been put up to it by the British and French to provide an excuse for action. Probably the biggest lie in the history of parliament, as it was so barefaced.

Suez just meant petrol rationing. We also listened at irregular hours during the Cuba crisis, but that was far more worrying, and I think people really shied away from listening. I still remember the huge relief one Sunday morning when we realized we weren't going to be blown to smithereens, at least not yet.

[postwarblue]

Col B had a house radio 1947-54, perched on top of the lockers at the end nearest the door, on the right as you entered. So either it died or Fryer got rid of it. I think some people had record players, one to play Earl Bostik and be-bop records which was a new fad then. Hit songs included The Thing (a pastiche on the Lincolnshire Poacher). 208 Radio Luxemburg was popular.

We had an extra Whole Holiday for the Coronation, I went home and watched it next door, my very first TV experience. Princess Margaret advanced up the aisle tall and stately until our host adjusted the vertical hold. It was not so much black and white as speckledy grey on grey.

The school telephone was switched through to the central lobby of Coleridge on the Col B side when the headmaster's office was shut.

A H Buck had a Ford CYT180, painted green to match the grass on Big Side. He once got 14 boys into it (one on his lap) to give them a lift to the swimming bath Early Swim (in which he joined).

[Kit Bartlett]

The School Infirmary also had a wireless, probably located in the Day room there. I recall Dr. Tommy Scott
putting on the Saturday evening Football news in 1947 after a special request by yours truly . This was transmitted to the Ward in which I was located.
Communication was still made by telegram.When my younger brother Nick was due to return to the school
after an operation. again in 1947, Kit Aitken sent my parents suggesting delay on account of much illness and bad weather.
I also remember a boy receiving a telegram in Chapel Practice one Saturday morning which was to say that his parents could not visit him that day. Another boy was actually batting in a first eleven match when a telegraph boy took the telegram out to the wicket.
On the subject of Mrs. Hurst and the Suez Political Crisis , how much were boys influenced by opinions of the Masters ? Would this be allowable in today's climate ?

[michael scuffil]

Re telegrams

1) my parents got one from JH Page on the last day of term (i.e. the day we should have gone home) reading 'Son indisposed. Letter follows.' (This was in about 1960/61, at the start of the summer holidays. About 200 boys went down with vomiting and diarrhoea. We went home on the Friday rather than the Tuesday, I think.)

2) Michael Cherniavsky made it known that he'd sent a telegram to Hugh Gaitskell in advance of the Trafalgar Square anti-Suez rally, reading 'Pull no punches Hugh'.