Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

As a convert myself, I'm always interested in other people's reason.

Maggie

Rex wrote:Indeed. A striking example was the <b>Rev Charles Hann</b> who left the Horsham Staff in 1950 (was he Pullin's immediate predecessor as Chaplain?) to become principal of an Anglican theological college, from which he subsequently resigned in order to convert to Rome. I have a feeling this caused a bit of a stir at the time.

I remember ........

Charles Augustus Cuthbert Hann
Is a very righteous man .....

... but that is all I remember.

Good start, David, how about working on the memory for the rest of it?
Maggie

Well that's about it .... I can't even remember what he looked like. For obvious reasons he was known as "CAC" Hann (as in "Cack") but, as I have described elsewhere on the forum there was another chaplain - Whitfield? - who together with my much admired Rev Cecil Cochrane made up the Holy Trinity of that era.

I think "the Chain" did probably replace CAC Hann. Interestingly, on the Chaplains' thread we all spelled him as Pullen, but I have no doubt that David Miller is right about the spelling "Pullin" - he usually knows about these things.

As I said on the other thread, I mostly remember "the Chain", in Divinity lessons, taking us through the Old Testament from the beginning. On the way we had some sex instruction where the text prompted it. I remember clearly that this was as embarrassing for him as it was for me (I came from a very sheltered background where such things were never mentioned), and I rather think some evil boys with a warped sense of humour had put him up to it by their questions. I remember him stumbling over questions about masturbation - I hardly then knew what it was - and pleading with the class to desist from this practice in which, he feared, some of us might possibly indulge. It was not only physically bad for us, but it was essential that we should keep ourselves pure for the right girl whom, one day, he hoped, we should surely meet.

cj wrote:

Mid A 15 wrote:

Foureyes wrote:As to converting to RC, he is but one of many associated with CH who have done so, starting with Edmund Campion. I have a theory as to why this should happen (I am one who did so), but it would be too long and boring to set out here.

I'd be interested for one.

So would I!

Please explain your theory, Foureyes! I'm interested too!

This thread seem to have the most on the Australian Mackerras but mods etc please feel free to move this post somewhere else if you wish.

I vaguely remember being in his French class at some time.

This was back in the day when June Whitfield was young and a photo of her doing a star jump dressed in short shorts appeared on the front of Picture Post. A Col B contemporary told us how he had been called over by Mackerras at the end of a lesson and shown this and asked if it had any effect on him. I don't suppose this tale ever found its way upstairs.

I had a vague idea that "Windy" as he was known was with Maine A for a while but I could be wrong about that. I've known one or two people over the years who have converted to Catholicism because of the lure of the bells and smells and general razzmatazz. I suppose it's understandable when you consider the appeal of the great musical and visual art that was employed during the Counter Reformation to seduce the wavering back into the fold. In our cold and unforgiving land of work ethic Protestantism it must be a bit of a pull.

After the Rev LF Whitfield’s C of E theological studies he became a member of a pacifist group. When he realised this group was a communist front, he became an Australian Army chaplain and chose to serve with a Commando Unit in New Guinea. He inherited the nickname ‘Windy’ from his predecessor Ba B junior housemaster, Frank McCracken another Australian who also taught divinity. Presumably early on Frank released wind in public.

Rev Arthur Pullin did succeed Rev CAC Hann as Chaplain. The latter left CH to become Principal of a C of E Theological Seminary. Allegedly Pullin left because he wanted to do parish work in a deprived neighbourhood, rather than continue to luxuriate at CH.

Another modest divinity teacher taught a typical, young, all-knowing, smart alec. After the reading of an Old Testament passage, the teacher was asked, “What does circumcised mean?” After an embarrassed pause, the reply was given, “I can’t tell you that. Is there any other question about the passage we read?” “Yes please Sir,” said the same boy, “What does uncircumcised mean?” This I believe happened, although I was not in the class.

I too would be most interested to hear Foureyes' theory.

Foureyes wrote:As to converting to RC, he is but one of many associated with CH who have done so, starting with Edmund Campion. I have a theory as to why this should happen (I am one who did so), but it would be too long and boring to set out here.