Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

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Golfer
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Golfer »

wurzel wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:11 pm "random punishments" which meant a dep caught with some home brew could get a harsher punishment than an LE caught legless on Vodka for the 2nd or 3rd time (not sure if that actually happened but the concept struck me as very unfair at the time)
Just not true - this must be a urban (rural) rumour. Name any LE caught legless on vodka for a second time who remained in the school.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by wurzel »

Golfer wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:37 pm
wurzel wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:11 pm "random punishments" which meant a dep caught with some home brew could get a harsher punishment than an LE caught legless on Vodka for the 2nd or 3rd time (not sure if that actually happened but the concept struck me as very unfair at the time)
Just not true - this must be a urban (rural) rumour. Name any LE caught legless on vodka for a second time who remained in the school.
Ok maybe a pit of hyperbole but definitely there was a feeling around the school at the time that what had been a structured punishment regime for drinking/smoking suddenly became a lottery - it didnt reduce the drinking at all but it did cause resentment from the seniors - the block system was likely the worst thing ever for exposing the juniors to the vices of the seniors and that was around the same time as Hansford taking over so the descent of the behaviour of juniors would have coincided with that

However the closest i can think to an example was maybe not an LE when caught but a mad guy in MaB / MaA who had some serious alcohol issues - I know senior boys had a word with him but he somehow managed to survive until GCSE's - remember him leaping out of the dorm window onto a couple of mattresses put outside after some vodka
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J.R.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by J.R. »

wurzel wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:06 pm
Golfer wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:37 pm
wurzel wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:11 pm "random punishments" which meant a dep caught with some home brew could get a harsher punishment than an LE caught legless on Vodka for the 2nd or 3rd time (not sure if that actually happened but the concept struck me as very unfair at the time)
Just not true - this must be a urban (rural) rumour. Name any LE caught legless on vodka for a second time who remained in the school.
Ok maybe a pit of hyperbole but definitely there was a feeling around the school at the time that what had been a structured punishment regime for drinking/smoking suddenly became a lottery - it didnt reduce the drinking at all but it did cause resentment from the seniors - the block system was likely the worst thing ever for exposing the juniors to the vices of the seniors and that was around the same time as Hansford taking over so the descent of the behaviour of juniors would have coincided with that

However the closest i can think to an example was maybe not an LE when caught but a mad guy in MaB / MaA who had some serious alcohol issues - I know senior boys had a word with him but he somehow managed to survive until GCSE's - remember him leaping out of the dorm window onto a couple of mattresses put outside after some vodka

AMAZING !!

Nothing near so exciting as the above ever happened in my era, but then that was during the reign of CMES.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
seajayuu
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by seajayuu »

It’s noteworthy that you saw IAPOTP as A Good Thing. I’d never really reflected on it that way until now, but I remember it well. As a young inmate, and after a brief spell of Baker (and being oblivious to his failings) Hansford felt like an icy blast from the 1950s; the punishments were indeed nonsensical, the rhetoric in chapel was Victorian, and it didn’t help that he was accompanied by a disconnected relic that came in from The Other Place (swiftly superseded by Cairncross).
I find this a quite amazing post. "The Other Place" "a disconnected relic". Are you referring to Hertford and Miss Morrison? If so, it really does explain why so few female OBs bother with this forum.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by J.R. »

seajayuu wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:45 pm
It’s noteworthy that you saw IAPOTP as A Good Thing. I’d never really reflected on it that way until now, but I remember it well. As a young inmate, and after a brief spell of Baker (and being oblivious to his failings) Hansford felt like an icy blast from the 1950s; the punishments were indeed nonsensical, the rhetoric in chapel was Victorian, and it didn’t help that he was accompanied by a disconnected relic that came in from The Other Place (swiftly superseded by Cairncross).
I find this a quite amazing post. "The Other Place" "a disconnected relic". Are you referring to Hertford and Miss Morrison? If so, it really does explain why so few female OBs bother with this forum.
I also found that comment somewhat sexist, but decided to let it ride for the time being.

Comments, anyone else ??
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Katharine »

I seem to have missed it first time round.

Did the boys at Horsham at the time of the Merger ever wonder what it would have felt like to be moved lock stock and barrel to a different establishment? For them, there was the change, possibly the exciting change of girls around, but they were in a familiar environment, in familiar uniform, not so the girls.

I'm beginning to get hot under the collar!
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by seajayuu »

I have a very clear memory of an OB day. I was standing looking at the attendees board and someone behind me said "I didn't even know that there was a girls school". The very first child admitted to CH was a girl. An awful lot of male OBs of a certain age have chosen to either forget or ignore the girls.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by J.R. »

Well done Ladies ! Nice to see you back on form.

Obviously, the merger was after my time, and thinking back, I can't really remember any references to Hertford other than it existed in Hertfordshire and was our 'opposite number'.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Avon »

I see nothing particularly offensive in describing Hertford as The Other Place. I take it you all get the parliamentary allusion?

As for Morrison - she was comfortably beyond her sell by date by the time she got to Horsham. So functionally not what was needed - regardless of how nostalgically people want to treat her.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by seajayuu »

Please stop patronising us!
Miss Morrison transferred to give the girls a point of reference and familiarity - and to fight their corner if necessary. I don't view her with nostalgia, but I do admire her feisty spirit.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Avon »

We must hold different views on the meaning of patronising. Which you will no doubt regard as a patronising statement in itself.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by DeletedAccount »

Dear Ed/Avon

Intention and perception don't always coincide.

Some OB's didn't agree with your description of Ms. Morrison. They saw her and the role she played in the merger (and the transfer to Horsham) very differently. No problems there. But you appeared to dismiss their views as mere nostalgia, implying your view was superior. Isn't that what condescension and patronising treatment are all about? And to be honest - and perhaps to display my ignorance - I didn't know that "the other place" was commonly used in bicameral parliamentary systems (thank you wikipedia!); I had only come across it in the context of Oxford and Cambridge (and in that case a degree of superiority/disdain was certainly implied).

So I am not sure whether it was a question of good intention being perceived differently or just a patronising approach to differing opinions. Which was it?

And finally... I didn't find your last reply patronising - rude yes, but not patronising.

There's no harm in always treating people, especially fellow Old Blues, with respect...
Last edited by DeletedAccount on Tue Oct 16, 2018 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Foureyes »


"...thinking back, I can't really remember any references to Hertford other than it existed in Hertfordshire and was our 'opposite number'."


Things must have changed. I was at Horsham from 1948-55 and we were very aware of the girls school at Hertford. The Grecians used to go up there every Summer Term and were eagerly debriefed on their return. Then, of course, the girls played an equal part in St Mathew's Day in London. For the Quattercentenary the entire girls' school came down to Horsham for a whole day. This included some sort of ceremony in Big School and a friend and I, on hearing that the girls were being banished to the balcony, we pre-positioned ourselves there before they arrived. Martin and I spent the entire afternoon talking to the girls around us (there was this very pretty girl from Catford, but I digress...) and none of us ever paid any attention to what was going on below. Also, there were several girls in the party that greeted the Queen on her first visit to the City of London, with pictures in every paper.

So, we did not meet the girls very often, but we were certainly very aware and many wished that the two schools were much closer.

As for Miss Morrison, I had several conversations with her at Horsham, during visits as an Old Blue, and found her an impressive person. I can remember feeling that she seemed to have taken the move in very good spirit, even though it meant the closure of the Hertford she had known and loved.
David :shock:
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by DeletedAccount »

Foureyes » Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:28 pm

"...thinking back, I can't really remember any references to Hertford other than it existed in Hertfordshire and was our 'opposite number'."

Things must have changed. I was at Horsham from 1948-55 and we were very aware of the girls school at Hertford. The Grecians used to go up there every Summer Term and were eagerly debriefed on their return. Then, of course, the girls played an equal part in St Mathew's Day in London. For the Quattercentenary the entire girls' school came down to Horsham for a whole day. This included some sort of ceremony in Big School and a friend and I, on hearing that the girls were being banished to the balcony, we pre-positioned ourselves there before they arrived. Martin and I spent the entire afternoon talking to the girls around us (there was this very pretty girl from Catford, but I digress...) and none of us ever paid any attention to what was going on below. Also, there were several girls in the party that greeted the Queen on her first visit to the City of London, with pictures in every paper.

So, we did not meet the girls very often, but we were certainly very aware and many wished that the two schools were much closer.

As for Miss Morrison, I had several conversations with her at Horsham, during visits as an Old Blue, and found her an impressive person. I can remember feeling that she seemed to have taken the move in very good spirit, even though it meant the closure of the Hertford she had known and loved.
David
What a lovely post David.

It made me smile. Several times.

Thank you!
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Re: Resignation of Baker and emergency appointment of Hansford

Post by Katharine »

Thank you Dick. Both Chrissy and I were at Hertford long before the merger. I’m sure I speak for both of us in saying that we think of ourselves as Old Blues, just as much as anyone who attended the school in Horsham, or indeed London before that.

I think Miss Morrison arrived shortly before I left Hertford, I was never taught by her. I think it must have been very reassuring to some of the girls to have a familiar face on the staff at Horsham when the merger happened. The whole process must have been very strange and disconcerting, for everyone both boys and girls, but particularly for the girls, however well both schools prepared for it.
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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