Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

huntertitus wrote:In my day everyone LONGED to be in the sicker

Better food

ladies to mop your brow

Exciting tablets

I still have all my diaries written at the school

The best nurse was called Nurse Ramsbottom

She was rather overweight and had strange horn rimmed spectacles but as a little boy whose parents had abandoned him to a school where diseases ran rife such as the famous influenza epidemic of 1970 she was the only truly kind and loving woman I ever met there

I didnt say girl

I said woman

And I am talking about the year I was 12 yrs old

If I ever met her I would buy her a bottle of Champagne for showing me such kindness

I must stop rambling on

Yes now you mention her I too remember Nurse Ramsbottom. She was indeed a nice lady.

Didn't Peter Brotherton marry one of the nurses?

Does anyone remember a nurse named Pat Wallis/Wallace?

AKAP wrote:Didn't Peter Brotherton marry one of the nurses?

I was in Barnes B when Brotherton was there and courting and you could almost set your watch by the time he made his evening visits to the infirmary.
If he did get married it was after I left but they were a pretty heavy number.

There were also rumours that some of the young masters and nurses would go skinny dipping down on the coast somewhere.

A tubigrip and a paracetamol did seem to be the answer for everything. The matron/sister-type person at Hertford used to save time during our weighing and measuring sessions by putting 2 or 3 of us on the scales at the same time and dividing the total weight by the number of girls on said scales. The medicals with the 'doctor' were decidedly dodgy. Half naked girls on lap "to check your backbone"? I don't think so .. Doesn't the Horsham sicker have records of all the historical epidemics and deaths that occurred. I'm sure I saw a huge tome containing such info either on a proper tour of the place, or maybe on an exploratory expedition whilst recuperating from some ghastly plague.

yes the sicker did like it's tubi-grips and paracetomaol - and who can forget sicker squash?

Great Plum wrote:yes the sicker did like it's tubi-grips and paracetomaol - and who can forget sicker squash?

And of course, the only place that you could get toast for breakfast. Even if it was soggy.

you could have sneaked onto the dais to use the toaster!

J.R. wrote:In the days of capital and corporal punishment, the resident 'Doc' was Dr. 'Tommy' Scott. There were four full-time nurses, and a dentist, (Mr Pearson), used to come in from Horsham and hold surgery once a week. (Tuesday's, I think). He really should have been a butcher by profession.

Those long queues before classes I remember well. I suffered with warts on the fingers and had to have them painted with some revolting silver/black material three times a week. The smell was revolting and it took months to kill them.

I never minded a spell in the sicker as the food always seemed a lot better than in the dining-hall.

Obviously you never came under the care of Nurse Megan Rigby, the warts specialist (provided Dr Scott didn't hear about them first). A (?loving) touch and a week later they were gone with no pain or suffering. The worst thing about the treatment was that no followup consultation was required and in my case was 100% effective.


IMHO, as well as being just about the only real human around in those days, she was certainly deserving of that bottle of champers so if she is reading this, just look at my advert under Holidays in France in the Old Blues Businesses section to collect (discounts for OBs BTW)

J.R. wrote:Those long queues before classes I remember well. I suffered with warts on the fingers and had to have them painted with some revolting silver/black material three times a week. The smell was revolting and it took months to kill them.

You were lucky not to have tinea pedis or cruris, since the paint was green. If you had a bad case, then bathing in your house was forbidden and one had to bathe in the infirmary, which was great for finding out what the nurses were up to, and depending on the timing and other skills, a quick game of snooker.

What about Balmosa? Cured everything that green paint couldn't. I seem to remember we all reckoned Tommy Scott had shares in the manufacturers.