1968 and all that

[rockfreak]

I left in 1960, just as Peter Cook and co were readying the end of the age of deference. A faint rumble of dissent deep underground. But in 1968 Paris was ablaze and Grosvenor Square was rioting. I'd love to know what was happening at CH from anyone who was there at the time. How did the sedate and Divinity-teaching Clarence cope with the revolution? One headmaster of a public school at the time was quoted as saying that he felt he was fighting a low-level guerrilla war against the pupils.

[J.R.]

Too late for me Freaky.

HOWEVER, I was in Frejus near Nice as Paris and the Sorbonne erupted and had drinks with many National police officers who were barracked there and were about to travel north to the capital to 'bang some heads'.

Sorry. Slightly off topic but memories flooded back at your post.

[sejintenej]

Too late for me Freaky.

HOWEVER, I was in Frejus near Nice as Paris and the Sorbonne erupted and had drinks with many National police officers who were barracked there and were about to travel north to the capital to 'bang some heads'.

Sorry. Slightly off topic but memories flooded back at your post.

National Police banging heads??? It was the CRS (Compagnie Republicaine de Securite), - a specialist branch of the Gendamerie (a military force) who did the head banging during the student protests. Had one of them came to our local bar - hands the size of large dinner plates and he was reckoned to be small.

[J.R.]

My apologies. I'd forgotten their proper title.

[Gingerbeard17]

I left in 1960, just as Peter Cook and co were readying the end of the age of deference. A faint rumble of dissent deep underground. But in 1968 Paris was ablaze and Grosvenor Square was rioting. I'd love to know what was happening at CH from anyone who was there at the time. How did the sedate and Divinity-teaching Clarence cope with the revolution? One headmaster of a public school at the time was quoted as saying that he felt he was fighting a low-level guerrilla war against the pupils.

As I recall we were in our own revolution in 1968 as Junior and Senior houses were settling, I think it was the first year of house changes. Seaman used the flow from junior to senior to quieten down certain "rebellious" houses, hand picking a number of boys to be sent to a house of his choice. He probably delayed it for a couple of years as it wasnt until 70 or 71 when there was a raft of expulsions and the police were brought in to investigate drug taking and dealing which along with long hair and uniform "abuse" were the outward signs of rebellion.

[Goatherd]

That 'raft of expulsions' was in Newsome's time, wasn't it? I was there for one term with him. It all seems to have fallen apart just after I left!

[Mid A 15]

That 'raft of expulsions' was in Newsom's time, wasn't it? I was there for one term with him. It all seems to have fallen apart just after I left!

Yes Clarrie finished in the summer of 1970. The expulsions were definitely in Newsome's time if we are thinking of the same ones!

I have a very vague memory of talk about a demonstration around the time Freaky is recalling, or a little later, during Seaman's time but have no idea as to whether anything tangible actually happened.

I suspect not as word would probably have spread if it had.

[Goatherd]

Slightly off topic, but does anyone from that era remember any piss being taken out of CMES's surname? He was known as 'Clarence', 'Clarrie', Milt. But that was it. But maybe I was just very naive!

[J.R.]

Slightly off topic, but does anyone from that era remember any piss being taken out of CMES's surname? He was known as 'Clarence', 'Clarrie', Milt. But that was it. But maybe I was just very naive!

I don't recall any urine extraction.

He was aloof, respected and quiet during my time.

[MrEd]

But in 1968 Paris was ablaze and Grosvenor Square was rioting. I'd love to know what was happening at CH from anyone who was there at the time.

Well in the Summer of 1968, they were probably wondering if the Soviets would invade Czechoslovakia, and so they did, along with the East Germans, Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians in the Warsaw Pact armies. They were probably grateful by the autumn that the tanks had stopped rolling on that side of Iron Curtain, as the troublesome Czechs and Slovaks were rounded up.

And they might have thought little of the, at best, self-indulgent scum who were rioting because they were not in charge, and the West remained free.

[ZeroDeConduite]

CH Medical Officer Trevor Hoskins, writing in June 1978, had this to says:

In a decade since student unrest reached its height, and those of us working in schools saw its effect on schoolchildren, with an unprecedented questioning of authority and the entire basis of the educational system.
Opting out, and the search for personal Nirvana, often through drug experimentation and pilgrimages to the East, were commonplace and more easily available at a time of economic affluence.
This inevitably heightened the identity confusion of many adolescents.
Now that affluence has given way to recession, the practical advantages of education are more apparent to its recipients because of uncertainty about employment after leaving school.
This makes adolescents more prepared to accept the constraints of school life – constraints which themselves are less irksome than they were ten years ago.
Today’s young people seem in general to be more conforming and more conservative in general than were their older brothers and sisters.

[jhopgood]

I left CH in 1966 and went up to Nottingham University in 1967 after a year in industry. I am confused about the year as I thought our demonstrations took place in my last year and not 1968, and I have been unable to get a better date off the internet.
Based on the Warwick University sit in, related to free access to student files, the student union, led by Tim Smith, (we were in Sherwood Hall at the same time), voted for a sit in and occupied Trent Building. I can’t remember how long they were in there, but there was a major campaign by the rest of the students to get them out. A meeting was called in the student union building (Portland), which was connected by closed circuit tv to the site at Sutton Bonington. Tariq Ali came up and spoke, but the outcome was that we voted to terminate the sit-in, voted out Tim Smith and his team, and voted in a new student board including my flat mate, Dave Odell, as treasurer.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised but our counter revolution got no publicity and seems to have been misplaced by the press in the commemorations of 1968.
Deep distrust of the press to this day.

[rockfreak]

CH medical officer Trevor Hoskins appears to have missed the 1978 zeitgeist somewhat. Hippies may have gone quiet but Punk was breaking out all over the place. "White riot! I wanna riot!" Wake up Trev.

[ASR]

Summer of 1968 I remember very clearly as a thirteen year old in BaA – Beatles music blaring out all over, long hair breaking out and Roger Martin rounding up a bunch of us and filming us naked in the bath with his Super 8 camera.

He went to jail this week for four years.

[DazedandConfused]

Summer of 1968 I remember very clearly as a thirteen year old in BaA – Beatles music blaring out all over, long hair breaking out and Roger Martin rounding up a bunch of us and filming us naked in the bath with his Super 8 camera.

He went to jail this week for four years.

There’s lots of discussion about Roger Martin over here viewforum.php?f=65