Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

In hindsight, I'm mildly astonished that I never knew or heard of any pupils at CH who made a habit of wetting their beds. At my previous boarding school, a tiny establishment compared with CH, there were various bed-wetters in my peer group, even in my final year. Yet just one term later, there I was at CH with nary a bed-wetter on the horizon.

Was this a fluke of circumstance? Or does no-one over the age of 10¾ wet their bed, anywhere in the UK? Or was there a big hush-up? (Unlikely.)

Not that I'm complaining. I just thank god I was never afflicted myself. In fact I really felt for the poor kids at my earlier school who were martyrs to bed-wetting, night after night, and whose needs frankly weren't catered for at all by the matrons...which is to say, they weren't offered any special facilities like extra bathing opportunities or changes of clothing, with the result that the poor b*ggers reeked of stale wee almost all the time, which was pretty trying at meal times and even worse if you were obliged to share a double desk with one of 'em in the classroom from one month to the next, as I was. That said, they were never bullied or scorned on account of their affliction, just steered clear of to a certain extent. I suspect we all had a strong sense of There but for the grace of god go I.

Was bed-wetting endemic in the old Prep? Or has CH always been a bed-wetting-free zone, since 1552?

I certainly don't recall any incidents of bed-wetting during my time in Prep B.

J.R. wrote:I certainly don't recall any incidents of bed-wetting during my time in Prep B.

I note the final rejoinder because you had one boy in Col B who,it was alleged, was a chronic bed-wetter. Eventually, during his first term, he left but I have no idea if this was the parents' or school's responsibility.
On second thoughts that might have been before your first year in the upper.

My now-ex husband was at prep school with a chronic bed wetting child whom nothing - not beatings, nor bashings up, nor peer ridicule, nor stern chats with Matron, nor furious morning slipper-throwings seemed to help.

His name, disastrously, was Ledbetter. The poor child.

Children already known to be bedwetters were specifically barred from admission to CH. I don't know what happened if the trauma of admission triggered the first occurrence!

sejintenej wrote:

J.R. wrote:I certainly don't recall any incidents of bed-wetting during my time in Prep B.

I note the final rejoinder because you had one boy in Col B who,it was alleged, was a chronic bed-wetter. Eventually, during his first term, he left but I have no idea if this was the parents' or school's responsibility.
On second thoughts that might have been before your first year in the upper.

It must have been David, as it doesn't ring any bells with me.

There was at least one other upper house bed wetter, not in Col B, who left quietly after his first term at CH. Unfortunately he was teased somewhat, perhaps in part because his surname began with W, so immediately giving rise to a nickname of "wee wee W... ". I don’t recollect any urine smell, so probably there was only night bed wetting. He was a gentle, pleasant chap and occasionally spoke in his sleep. The only words I recollect were considered very funny when he spoke about a ‘pyjamas key’. This presumably referred to a combination of a pyjamas cord (in those days an essential item to hold up pyjamas trousers) and a skate key (for there was much roller skating then, requiring use of a skate key to adjust the skates).

I seem to remember some boys had rubber sheets and almost all the mattresses had very suspicious stains. Angela, I'm not sure how ´beatings, bashings or stern talks`would solve such a problem as it's obviously not something they do on purpose.

dsmg wrote: Angela, I'm not sure how ´beatings, bashings or stern talks`would solve such a problem as it's obviously not something they do on purpose.

I am talking about my ex's 60's reminiscences of Framlingham College, which sounds utterly devoid of any sort of sympathetic pastoral care. "There was no point in going to sleep before 10pm" he would say "as the senior boys would get the junior boys out of bed, as they came up to their own dormitory, and bash them up for entertainment...". Bedwetter Ledbetter must have suffered extra ridicule and cruel treatment.

Those were the days! But my partner, who was at Stowe, had a wonderful time at school.

In Prep B 1946-7 we had a new boy who wet (I can remember his name) and I recall his mattress being draped over the big dormitory cylinder radiator to air.

postwarblue wrote:In Prep B 1946-7 we had a new boy who wet (I can remember his name) and I recall his mattress being draped over the big dormitory cylinder radiator to air.

I remember those radiators.

The 'aroma' must have been delightful !!

postwarblue wrote:the big dormitory cylinder radiator .

Ah! The luxury of having a bed next to one: in the winter you could stuff your clothes between the fins and enjoy some warmth on getting up.

Please tell me that at least one of those cylindrical radiators is in the school archives.

Those radiators always reminded me very, very vaguely of those wonderful old Gurney stoves you used to see in the side-aisles of cathedrals and other large, chilly churches. Sadly, whilst a handful of Gurneys remain - converted to gas and hissing away to themselves cheerfully - most have long since been disposed of.

Bring back Victorian technology, says I.