Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

My ID number had nothing to do with my birth certificate,EIBS279 8. It seems that the first part referred to the house where I was evacuated, and the 8 was my personal identifier, as I was the 8th and youngest person in the house. I've never forgotten it, but have failed to memorise any of the other misbegotten numbers eg NI, NHS( and they have changed that at least once).

I too remember cleaning the part of the shoe between sole and heel underneath, whatever you call it, in fact I still do it! I also remember my NI number, my original NHS number and my mother's Co-op divi number!! And I think that somewhere amongst the clutter I have my ID card.

Katharine wrote:Angela I can assure you that I had to polish the undersole of my shoes when I was a junior!

I suspect that my tormentors were rather more interested in inflicting the punishment rather than promoting the beauty and shine of the shoe!

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote: When I joined the Guards, particular attention was paid to the EDGES of the soles !!! --- this in addition to the glassy shine on the toes, and heels of the boots !

But of course; didn't you have to do the edges at CH? and get a shined polish in that awkward crack beween the sole and the upper? The glassy shine extended up to the place where you put your foot - ie everywhere. School shoes were polished well but CCF boots had to be 10 stages beyond that (except for General's inspection when it was 20 stages) - spit and polish every week.
In my last year we got that liquid polish which took all the work out of polishing boots though the rumour was that it damaged toe leather; nobody seemed to care because in July we would hand the boots in and get a new pair next September.

i remember being shown how to melt kiwi polish in a tea spoon over a lighter for the toe cap of ccf boots. By the 80's the amount of shoe cleaning depended on your house. MaineB under Grimshaw and MaineA under Shippen were much stricter than Sillet in LHB. when breakfast parade was scrapped in 82 or 3 we would amble to breakfast past MaineB who were lined up outside the front of house having shoe inspection daily.

We only had it weekly along with coat inspection when you had to brush down your coat with a stiff scrubbing brush soaked in some strange mixture matron made up in the lavends.

In junior house civies were locked in the civies room at the end of bottom dorm (below best coat room) other than leave days/end of term. In fact i think we were only allowed school provided jumpers up to and including LE. So literally your only bit of personal item you had was the option to bring an extra blanket/quilt from home for on top of the provided tartan blanket. I seem to also remember not being allowed hot water/toast until the LE and use of the cooker/ring was UF and above along with bicycles and going out of the ringfence

My ID number was XXXX 60-5 (as witness the disc I wore on a string round my neck in case the Boche should blow me to bits, and which I still have) but by the time the NHS came in the household was smaller and I was promoted to -3.

Re rationing, each holiday we were given Emergency coupons to take home with us. During term time the sweet coupons were dished out when we drew our weekly shilling or sixpence pocket money (and I think stamp for letter home), from our term's account kept by the housemaster, which had already been raided for 'house funds'.

We had no soogie to brush our coats with, only tap water. The best way was to button the coat onto one of the downstairs shower heads (which were never used for showering), but only the most imprudent would leave said coat unguarded as another would come and turn the shower on.

A trick learned in the CCF was running soap down the inside of a crease to give a good edge in the heavy serge. Don't recall bulling anything and I escaped as soon as possible (after Cert A Pt 1 at the end of the first year) into the RAF section which was more intellectual and wore ordinary Housey shoes instead of boots and gaiters, and did not involve wallowing in worm casts for the Leopard Crawl and the Lying Load.

My son does his boots and mess shoes (and my shoes for a small consideration) with melted Kiwi or Cherry Blossom or what have you.

wurzel wrote:i remember being shown how to melt kiwi polish in a tea spoon over a lighter for the toe cap of ccf boots.

Certainly I had heard about that but not being allowed anything to light a camdle or even have a lighter it was simply impossible.

wurzel wrote:By the 80's the amount of shoe cleaning depended on your house. MaineB under Grimshaw and MaineA under Shippen were much stricter than Sillet in LHB. when breakfast parade was scrapped in 82 or 3 we would amble to breakfast past MaineB who were lined up outside the front of house having shoe inspection daily.
We only had it weekly along with coat inspection when you had to brush down your coat with a stiff scrubbing brush soaked in some strange mixture matron made up in the lavends.

Col A juniors had shoe inspection every evening by a monitor. I don't think there were formal coat inspections but a monitor might notice and demand that a coat be cleaned and presented for inspection. Indeed everything was organised / done by the boys apart from beatings which were the housemaster's prerogative. Good experience for later life.

wurzel wrote: So literally your only bit of personal item you had was the option to bring an extra blanket/quilt from home for on top of the provided tartan blanket. I seem to also remember not being allowed hot water/toast until the LE and use of the cooker/ring was UF and above along with bicycles and going out of the ringfence

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One home rug allowed on beds in spring term and perhaps autumn term. No toast or hot water unless you were a house monitor or trades monitor. A couple of us had (legally) keys to the scout hut so we could have tea / coffee there on Tuesday and Sunday afternoons - we were normally studying there in any case rather than mucking about.

Just don't get the Hertford OBs started.

i was in CCF RAF section but we were issued boots for orienteering on denn hill if i remember rightly and despite knowing they were going to get plastered in mud we had to turn up for inspection in them all polished up.

wurzel wrote:i was in CCF RAF section but we were issued boots for orienteering on denn hill if i remember rightly and despite knowing they were going to get plastered in mud we had to turn up for inspection in them all polished up.

I'm trying to remember the dress code in the CD section. Certainly it was always denims except for the parade part of the General's Inspection but with denims we did not use belts or berets etc. For much of the training (apart obviously for the swimming) we used ordinary shoes or gym shoes except when we were off CH property and conditions demanded stouter footwear (the subterranean bowels of Horsham Fire Station for example). We were not issued special clothing of any type though I suspect the fire Brigade lent us helmets. Even digging through rubble in the bombed out village we didn't have gloves

englishangel wrote:My son does his boots and mess shoes (and my shoes for a small consideration) with melted Kiwi or Cherry Blossom or what have you.

It absolutely has to be Kiwi, Cherry Blossom just doesn't give you the shine. When we arrived at Dartmouth we were directed to go straight to the NAAFI to purchase this particular brand and ditch all others; I've never used any other since.

need the corrct kiwi though - you need parade gloss not standard kiwi - they sell both types in waitrose

wurzel wrote:need the corrct kiwi though - you need parade gloss not standard kiwi - they sell both types in waitrose

Nope - standard Kiwi gives a better shine. Everyone's technique varies but I swear by a very old, well-washed yellow duster, a little polish, a lot of spit and a very gentle circular motion to build up many ultra thin layers. Takes a while but comes up a treat.

wurzel wrote:i was in CCF RAF section but we were issued boots for orienteering on denn hill if i remember rightly and despite knowing they were going to get plastered in mud we had to turn up for inspection in them all polished up.

But they are much easier to clean afterwards if highly polished beforehand.