Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Foureyes wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 2:42 pm What I do know is that 'Pongo' was a common RAF term for Army officers. So, why it should have been applied to Mr Littlefield I have no idea.

I understand that the word pongo denotes an orang utan.

Did Mr Littlefield look uncannily like an orang utan? If so, it might explain why he qualified for the nickname in spite of having served in the RAF.

Ah yes - thank you Spoonbill. I've always wondered why we call the Army pongoes and suddenly it all makes sense.

The Air Force are crabs from the colour of crabfat, a grease used on the breeches of BL guns and referencing the colour of their uniforms, and Marines are bootnecks from their leather stocks in the 18th Century.

I hadn't heard the term bootneck before - and it comes up in your link about Buster Howes!

I admire the way the Marines treat their chaplains, they are deemed to have the rank of the person they are speaking to at the time - or so my late godfather told me who was one. My father was an RAF chaplain in the war and was given the rank of Squadron Leader as the most junior who could leave the base without asking permission.

Katharine wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 11:06 am I admire the way the Marines treat their chaplains, they are deemed to have the rank of the person they are speaking to at the time - or so my late godfather told me who was one. My father was an RAF chaplain in the war and was given the rank of Squadron Leader as the most junior who could leave the base without asking permission.

Unlike Army and Air Force chaplains, Naval Chaplains do not wear a rank which allows this approach throughout the Service. In reality, I don't think it makes much difference as they are very definitely officers, regardless of what they wear on their sleeve, but it does have some advantages. I've certainly not met any who would wish to change the system. The chaplain in one ship in which I served later transferred to the Army and was hugely amused to find himself badged as a Lieutenant Colonel!

Katharine wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 11:06 am I hadn't heard the term bootneck before - and it comes up in your link about Buster Howes!

US Marines are known as leathernecks for the same reason. The US Marine Corps was founded back in 1775 and modelled on the Royal Marines; even today they enjoy very close ties despite, of course, having the USMC having its origins on the other side of the revolutionary wars.

My guess is that he was called Pongo because he might have used the term himself derogatively. My understanding is that where the army goes, the pong goes... cf RAF = crabs (explained elsewhere) and Navy being Skates, allegedly due to their use of the same for pleasure

Saying “NO”.

Many masters/teachers at CH had their idiosyncratic ways of speaking. Pongo had a way of saying “No” that I have never come across anywhere else. He would say quite often,

“That is OUT, definitely OUT”.

This phrase was sometimes copied by some boys in his house, but he was no more negative than the next man.

Oliver wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 6:36 am Saying “NO”.

Many masters/teachers at CH had their idiosyncratic ways of speaking. Pongo had a way of saying “No” that I have never come across anywhere else. He would say quite often,

“That is OUT, definitely OUT”.

That looks as if he had adopted a popular and effective trick used in public speaking - repetition to ensure the point is remembered.

I found myself on stage playing opposite Pongo in a Barnes A House Play (can't remember what) where it was my job to have a conversation with him – to the amusement and amazement of the house – while provocatively fiddling with a cigarette doing his tapping thing on the fag box meanwhile trying to talk to him in the slow deliberate manner he talked to us. It was ambitious and quite surreal and difficult for a boy of 12 or 13. I'm not sure I carried it off as I was somewhat terrified. That would have been about 1968 or 69. There were no encores.

ASR wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 12:19 am ... in a Barnes A House Play ... That would have been about 1968 or 69.

Would that have been the one where Cobber Cornish was also sent up, I can't recall who by, with a spiel that ended with his favourite word 'absurd'?

Pongo's bark was worse than his bite, I thought. I never got beaten although my brother did.

Jabod2 wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 9:10 am

ASR wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 12:19 am ... in a Barnes A House Play ... That would have been about 1968 or 69.

Would that have been the one where Cobber Cornish was also sent up, I can't recall who by, with a spiel that ended with his favourite word 'absurd'?

Pongo's bark was worse than his bite, I thought. I never got beaten although my brother did.

Yes, Keith, I think it probably was the same production (directed by Roger Martin, ahem) . . . "Cobber Cornish" I was thinking about him only this week. I liked him, and later he taught me English. Any news of him - Peter Cornish, I think?

There has been some discussion on this site as to why Eric Littlefield was nicknamed 'Pongo', an appellation normally used by the RN and RAF to refer to men and women in the Army, when Eric was demonstrably RAF. There has been speculation that at sometime in his past he served with the Army, but this has never been proved. So, why Pongo Littlefield?
However, I am conducting some research, which has nothing to do with C.H., into Squadron-Leader A.S.K. Scarff, VC, RAF., a pilot who was awarded the VC for an act of great courage in the Malayan campaign on 9 December 1941. It transpires that his nickname, which was widely used within the RAF, was (you've guessed it) - 'pongo.'
As with Eric Littlefield, I can discover no Army links in Scarff's background, so it would seem that in the 1930s and 1940s the nickname 'pongo' was applied to certain individuals in the RAF for reasons currently unexplained, but unrelated to the Army. The mystery deepens!
David

An explanation that I learned for Pongo’s nickname arose from his idiosyncratic mode of walking. He walked confidently but with his arms directed downwards and slightly bent at the elbows, with the palms directed to the front and so apparently curved forward. This is similar to an orangutang’s (sp. pongo pongo) walking or to a penguin’s. (Also, in French which he taught, the translation of penguin, pinguin, is pronounced somewhat like Pongo.)

I agree that he had virtually nothing “Army” about him or his history and was very proud of his WW2 RAF service. But when talking of his time as a schoolboy in the Army OTC (the pre-war precursor of the CCF) at Merchant Taylors’ School, I remember him saying that bayonets were varnished. That OTC membership was his total connection with the Army, I suspect. (In my post-war days the CH CCF never used bayonets.)

Mr Littlefield's nickname was always a mystery to me.
I naively assumed it might have something to do with body odour, so it's interesting to read the various theories that have been put forward in this thread.
All I can recall about him was that he was hall warden, there was no nonsense from anyone when he used his gavel, and he could be quite fearsome if there was a crockery breakage or the like during a meal.
I don't recall I ever broke anything, but what happened if you did?

An indication of Pongo’s admirable cleanliness and fastidiousness was the fact that his hands and nails were scrupulously clean and pink, for he was a chain smoker of Senior Service. After each cigarette he brushed his fingers, nails, etc, with a nail brush. This was in stark contrast with Fal (Mr Peter Matthews), the other teacher cigarette chain-smoker, whose fingers were very deeply stained. Their personalities were also diametrically opposed in all other aspects, with Fal being generally sloppy in appearance and hardly interested in discipline, etc.