Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Is it about that old adage, 'A Hand in the Bush is worth two in the Pub' ??

I suppose there's always a job at CH for Heather Mills if she spends her £24 mill...

Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.

For some strange reason, the name of Mr Hards, (? Jack Hards ?) flashed into my mind.

Could that have been the guy in the wardrobe ?

J.R. wrote:

Tydd St Giles wrote:Did CH have more than it's fair share of monoped employees? and the bokker in the wardrobe.
Since leaving I don't recall ever having met anyone with a wooden leg.

For some strange reason, the name of Mr Hards, (? Jack Hards ?) flashed into my mind.

Could that have been the guy in the wardrobe ?

Little balding old bloke (probably about my age now ) if I remember rightly.

There was another guy called Henderson who was a very good race walker, county standard or better. (He had two legs).

Mid A 15 wrote:Little balding old bloke (probably about my age now ) if I remember rightly.

Certainly a short balding fella, who's leg squeaked as he walked. I NEVER saw him smile. Very surly.

He must have been in his fourties/early fifties when I was there, which would make him probably over 100 by now !

Er, this thread seemed to fizzle out some time back as the arboreal references took over.

So back to Kit Aiken...

I remember Kit for a number of reasons. He would normally arrive for Latin/General Classics lessons on board his modified bicycle. This had a pedal removed on one side, so that he could ride it without having to use his wooden leg, pedallilng gently with his good leg. He was quite nippy on it too...

Once he arrived at the class, he had a number of witticisms, including:

"Is life worth living?"

"It all depends on the liver."

As we chortled to that one (or others of that ilk), he would always say, "Joke Over, Joke Over!" in a very loud voice.

Kit also insisted that we did a rough copy of a translation first, followed by a fair copy, chiding us with the phrase, "Rough Copy, Fair Copy, Rough Copy, Fair Copy."

I recall that he was quite a keen canoeist, and could be seen occasionally in the swimming pool, practicing. I've got a feeling that his canoe may have been modified to take his wooden leg, or perhaps he removed the leg before getting in to his canoe. Either way, he never let his disability affect him, and was a tremendous master.

Glad somebody liked Kit Aitken.When he took me for English I thought he was a boring, humourless pedant.

Straz wrote:So back to Kit Aiken...
I remember Kit for a number of reasons. He would normally arrive for Latin/General Classics lessons on board his modified bicycle. This had a pedal removed on one side, so that he could ride it without having to use his wooden leg, pedallilng gently with his good leg. He was quite nippy on it too...

until the pedal was removed from the one side and placed on the other. I don't think he ever found out who did it.

Straz wrote: I recall that he was quite a keen canoeist, and could be seen occasionally in the swimming pool, practicing. I've got a feeling that his canoe may have been modified to take his wooden leg, or perhaps he removed the leg before getting in to his canoe. Either way, he never let his disability affect him, and was a tremendous master.

I never heard about the canoe but he was keen on sailing, especially in the company of pupils and when moving from one Broads place of liquid refreshment to the next. He was well known up there (I think he owned a house there but I didn't see it) and nobody raised an eyebrow at the ages of his guests - who sometimes bought the rounds.

Postwarblue wrote:Glad somebody liked Kit Aitken.When he took me for English I thought he was a boring, humourless pedant.

For a start you were not in Col A and my guess is that you had him when you were fairly young. Yes - if you were young he was like that (and I hated him) but from Dep Grecians up he was totally different. He did have a sense of the ridiculous and he did allow some pupils a massive amount of leeway because he seemed to know whom he could trust not to go too far. As for when he was on the Broads he was even more relaxed and fun.

One Sunday afternoon cycling back from seeing a girlfriend (which was against the rules) I had an accident requiring me to get extensive facial treatment in the infirmary. Kit's only comments were along the lines of "you should get the mud off your shoes before you get on a bike you silly idiot". The first half indicated that he had guessed exactly what had happened and the second part was - for me - the right line to take. It was never mentioned again and he readily (with a smile) gave me permission to go for a "bike ride" two Sundays later.

No, I went to Kit for English as a Maths Grecian for the first two terms of 1954. He did give me quite good reports though. Gad Malins and David Jesson-Dibley were far more my cup of tea.

To be fair Kit did compliment one of my essays for starting with a quotation, which was decent, since it was total invention.

And no I wasn't in Col A but Col B next door.

For 20 years at least, Kit took the LFA for English. Prep consisted only ever of learning four verses of a poem. These poems were (evidently) always the same from year to year. I remember well his enunciation (he had an extraordinary voice) of "the good abbot of Aberbrothock" (who placed the bell on the Inchcape Rock). Browning was a favourite. (Though we didn't get the one which contains Browning's great literary howler (an old nun's tw**), which B. had lifted from some 17th century poem in the erroneous belief that it referred to some kind of headgear.)