Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Neill, you are ahead of me ........ although I carry a mobile phone in case of emergency, I still do not know how to initiate a text. I did once know how to reply to an incoming text but it was a long time ago and I have probably forgotten. But Skype is my lifeline to my grandchildren. Goodness knows what will happen once they are old enought o actually make Skype calls themselves!

In my time, I don’t remember any particular ginger related bullying (which, given the extent of verbal bullying in those days, is perhaps surprising). However, given I only recall a limited number of ginges at the school, there do appear to have been rather a large number grouped in Maine, including Justin Newsum, Justin Lewis, David Manser, John Hampson and a number of other boarder-line cases (I daren’t grow a beard myself in case it comes out ginger).

In those days the number of pupils with an ethnic minority background was also rather limited but, again, many seemed to be grouped in Maine, including Olu Popoola, Anghel Pufulete (is Romanian an ethnic minority?), Tom Polo, James Ntuk-Idem, Kwame Inyundo, Tayo Popoola and Weboko Inyundo.

Perhaps the authorities treated ginges and ethnic minorities in a similar fashion and believed that grouping them together would provide safety in numbers and reduce the risk of bullying. Or, that they would fell more comfortable surrounded by others of “their own kind”.

The CH museum has been publishing an excellent serious of books dealing with different aspects of the history and traditions of the school. Surely this is an area that justifies further research and its own book.

Did James Ntuk-Idem have a sister Maria at Hertford? I particularly remember the name because she and my daughter were the only two Marias in the school at the time; and I thnk there was only one Mary, who was actually Mary-Rose (possibly without the hyphen?) which struck me as odd since Mary and Maria are normally common names.

Yes, and Maria was also at Horsham.

Fjgrogan wrote:I thnk there was only one Mary, who was actually Mary-Rose (possibly without the hyphen?)

Yes - I was good friends with Mary. She was in 4's and at the time hated being called by her full name, preferring Mary. And yes, there was a hyphen!

Fjgrogan wrote:Neill, you are ahead of me ........ although I carry a mobile phone in case of emergency, I still do not know how to initiate a text. I did once know how to reply to an incoming text but it was a long time ago and I have probably forgotten. But Skype is my lifeline to my grandchildren. Goodness knows what will happen once they are old enought o actually make Skype calls themselves!

WOW - There must be hope for me yet.

I've just upgraded to a completely button free phone. Touch-Screen does take a day or two to get used too, but far better than trying to focus on tiny little knobs. (No comments perleeeez, Ladies

simongibbs wrote:I daren’t grow a beard myself in case it comes out ginger).

This actually happened to me, much to my surprise. But to be honest it didn't look too bad, probably because being a brown-haired person I don't have the pale-and-sickly sun-disintegratable complexion which generally accompanies ginger hair. It was particularly surprising because there are no known gingernuts on either side of my family. But, as a brown-haired workmate of mine who succeeded in creating three ginger-haired children with his brown-haired wife used to speculate, perhaps it was because their mother continued smoking whilst pregnant. Maybe my own mother did too.

Incidentally, do we have any dentists in this Web-community? I ask because I've always wondered whether red-haired people's teeth are naturally less durable than the teeth of persons with non-red hair.

PS: The actor Richard Griffiths, whilst filming the tv series The Cleopatras, had to have his brown-haired head shaved every day for weeks on end because his character King Pot-Belly was a baldie. When filming ceased and his hair was free to grow back, it grew back ginger, much to his consternation, and ginger it remains to this day. It's a very strange thing, the human body. Especially mine.

One thing I do remember was "Get back in your biscuit tin, Ginger, Ginger." However this was from the same few people, and by no means the norm (which was more like people warming their hands against my hair.)

Turning things on its head, I rewrote a verse of that well-known campfire ditty to tell all the sprouts (another term coined by fun-pokers and adopted by us) that "You'll never get to heaven in a biscuit tin, 'cos the Lord don't let no gingers in."

On my Deps the classics department had a ginger majority!!!

Interesting to get an update from a comparatively recent pupil, Eruresto. So you're saying that gingerness is now considered worthy of remark, but not worthy of mindless violence, incessant name-calling and the flushing of one's head in the toilet?

Or do we suppose that ginger squits are currently being given living hell by their peer group? After all, anti-gingerness is a growth area, isn't it?

And what was the headcount like for ginger staff at your time of leaving? Were ginger teachers obliged by the Governors to have their heads shaved every other morning?

Spoonbill wrote:Interesting to get an update from a comparatively recent pupil, Eruresto. So you're saying that gingerness is now considered worthy of remark, but not worthy of mindless violence, incessant name-calling and the flushing of one's head in the toilet?

Or do we suppose that ginger squits are currently being given living hell by their peer group? After all, anti-gingerness is a growth area, isn't it?

And what was the headcount like for ginger staff at your time of leaving? Were ginger teachers obliged by the Governors to have their heads shaved every other morning?

No: out of a ginger teacher or a shaven-headed teacher, ginger came out on top (at least in the case of female teachers). Those are the only 2 I can remember off-hand.

Good to see seven pages of t-shirts celebrating gingerness at http://houseofspoons.spreadshirt.co.uk/ ... C116393/p1

It wasn't Barnes Wallis who had a " thing" for ginger kids, as mentioned by Angela ( heaven forfend ! ) but it was the very generous donation governor who also had a " thing" for Dorothy Ruth West ( Headmistress at Hertford ) and his name was Sir Harry Vanderpant ...I think his bearded marble bust must be somewhere at Horsham ( the museum ? ) free at last from having dish cloths thrown at it, an irresitible target below us from the top of the stairs ( those stairs still preserved at Hertford in the pensioners block of flats) as we filed out of the dining hall.

Anyhow , here is the quote from page 44 of Miss West's autobiographical book " Half to Remember"

" Sir Harry often visited the school and was attracted by the red-headed girls, and knew if one had left or we had another one. I think that he was fond of me personally."

Miss West goes on to explain that aswell as paying for huge improvements to the Hertford school he also donated
a great deal to Westminster Hospital , where he eventually died, nursed by an old Blue ( Barbara Watts ).

Chrissie Boy wrote:Incidentally, do we have any dentists in this Web-community? I ask because I've always wondered whether red-haired people's teeth are naturally less durable than the teeth of persons with non-red hair.

I can remember a surgical nursing legend that red headed patients would be more liable to bleed post-op.

Posted this, and then thought I would check out it out...

The BMJ recently published the results of a survey of scientific literature on this subject! So... redheads are more sensitive to the perception of pain, needing more lignocaine, but less opiate based anagesia. They are more sensitive to cold and heat, more likely to suffer from hernias, but popular medical belief that redheads are more susceptible to haemorrhage is not confirmed.



Alex, do you remember when we visited Horsham, we went hunting for the bust of Sir Harry Vanderpant? We found him on the landing of a twisty back staircase that led to some unknown region that led to nowhere. (It was a bit Gormenghastian.) His surface was cracking up. Completely neglected! The splatting from above with that soiled dishcloth was abuse prior to the lonely fate that was yet to come.

Alex, do you remember when we visited Horsham, we went hunting for the bust of Sir Harry Vanderpant? We found him on the landing of a twisty back staircase that led to some unknown region that led to nowhere. (It was a bit Gormenghastian.) His surface was cracking up. Completely neglected! The splatting from above with that soiled dishcloth was abuse prior to the lonely fate that was yet to come.
Hi Munch !

Lovely to hear from you...now you mention it, yes I do remember....poor Sir Harry....forgotten and unloved in a back stairwell somewhere. Thanks for reminding me. I'm sure D.R. ( Dorothy Ruth ) had him placed at the bottom of the dining hall stairs because she knew that the living Sir Harry would have loved to watch out for the ginger girls filing by.

D.R. also described him as "very abstemious". It would be interesting to find out more about him....there's a project for someone !

I hope you are happy and well xx

Out shopping in Helston today I saw two sets of violently ginger parents but their children looked normal. Clearly a cure has been found.