Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

farmloop wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:35 pm I doubt whether the victims want financial compensation, I think their reward, albeit belatedly, will be to see some element of justice.

cstegerlewis wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:32 pm That's a bit of a test, but I would say most years it was JDS, Torkington, Goodall (at least for a couple of years), 3 or 4 Old Blues who had been in Scouts and would have been Undergraduate Age, and I think Dobbie went on at least one (he also went on the Lake District Trip with the Scouts in December 85, my UF, as I remember he had to break the news to us that Bill Mitchell, then a Dep (?) had died of Cystic Fibrosis - I had spent some time with Bill when we were both in the sicker, but he was an acquaintance rather than a friend).

There were probably other masters involved (for no other reason that there must have been more minibus drivers) but I can't recall who.

cstegerlewis wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:14 pm

TMF wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:10 pm Everyone heard the rumours about the Norfolk Broads trips,

Soirry TMF, I am not sure why I am asking this, because perhaps I don't wnat to kno wthe answers, but as someone who went on these trips 3 times in the 80's is there any more on this? I don't recall anything untoward, but perhaps like others (and also back at school) I was too naive to notice, or not of any interest

farmloop wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:35 pm
In reference to TMF's post:
I went on a Broads trip with Ian Torkington and Dr Maddren and still see it as an opportunity for some boys, perhaps whose home circumstances were difficult, to have some respite. I'm unaware that anything untoward happened. I know I'll always be grateful to them for that holiday.

richardb wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:43 pm I think TMF was referring to trips when Burr and Webb were there.

michael scuffil wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:14 am Having read through most of the above (all of which relates to after my time) I come to appreciate the merits of CME Seaman all the more. I cannot think of a single incident of this nature during his time on which he did not act, and he was also highly pro-active (introducing proper sex-ed for the first time). As an OB himself, he would of course have had some inside knowledge. He was also responsible for pushing through the introduction of senior and junior houses. I think the situation of 18 and 11-year-olds sharing the same changing-room (with all that that implied) certainly played a role here.

Let me say a word about Kirby in this context. Kirby never abused anyone. But he did get boys to strip for the purpose of anatomical exposition. I do not believe he derived any sexual pleasure from this whatever, but rather that he had a barrack-room view of privacy which regarded embarrassment as 'wet'. He changed this practice soon after Seaman's arrival, and I do not doubt that it was Seaman who told him to stop. In those days, 'privacy' was hardly a concept, but 'modesty' was, and Seaman set great store by it. I might add that I was taught by Kirby soon after he changed: he would still get boys to strip from the waist up, but would get the chosen subject (the criterion was skinniness) to wear swimming trunks for the 'lower limb girdle'. And during the exposition, he then became extremely sensitive to the subject's feelings. I think he just didn't realize the effect of his earlier practice.

michael scuffil wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:14 am I come to appreciate the merits of CME Seaman all the more.