So who got the cane, the slipper, or anything else?
Add your stories, reasons for punishment, and what happened.
My only experience of corporal punishment was 6 whacks with a Dunlop Greenflash trainer, delivered by my junior housemaster Bob Sillett, for being overheard saying "It's not f**king funny". I was commenting on someone else who Bob had just "slippered", when someone was laughing at him and thinking it was funny. Rough justice I thought at the time, but Bob was in a bit of bad mood!
I don't blame him at all (much!) - I think a school with the threat of decent punishments helps keep the kids knowing who's in charge.
Anyone been watching "Brat Camp" on ?Channel 4?
well I think my era was a bit late for slippers etc, although i suspect gladding wanted to smash a few of his empty bottles over certain people's heads. the punishments have got pretty stupid over the years, on my juniors a yellow card used to be considered a huge punishment, nowadays its given for pretty much nothing. for instance, i made a box saying 'The Dan box' on it and stuck it on his door, then people put stuff in it like notes and old fags, and i got on yellow card, written on it was 'verbal and emotional bullying' or some rubbish, and i laughed at it rather than felt bad.
oh, and i got in trouble for writing a song about the I.T. department, entitled 'incompetent *****', an appropriate title i thought... it circulated over the whole grecians laptop network and i was forced to apologize , though i never did. i can send it to anyone who wants to here this song!
Mr Flemming used to slipper people. He'd give you a choice between a drill or a couple of whacks. Once the decision had been made to be slippered we'd get our respective footwear out and he'd hand-pick the one with the hardest looking sole - nice !!!
Chammy wrote: oh, and i got in trouble for writing a song about the I.T. department, entitled 'incompetent *****', an appropriate title i thought... it circulated over the whole grecians laptop network and i was forced to apologize , though i never did. i can send it to anyone who wants to here this song!
hell yeah i want a copy. and yes, they are. very.
Slipper people? Was that even legal then? Fleming certainly never did that in Col A! Although I gather he calmed down alot when he moved to being housemaster of a girl's house, guess he had to! I thought the Flemings were top houseparents but I know a few who would probably disagree. Would insist on wearing leather trousers and too much aftershave ... But much better than facing Mrs Endicott, now she was a scary lady. After she moved to Peele A she was never really heard of again. Thank you Peele A!
I don't remember if it was legal or not to slipper people. I only remember it happening once or twice in my first year and not after that (we're talking 1989/90). It was never done with a huge amount or malice and wasn't rife at all. Apparently the Children's Act outlawed corporal punishment but when it came in to effect I couldn't tell you. Hope I'm not gonna get anyone into trouble !
marty wrote: I don't remember if it was legal or not to slipper people. I only remember it happening once or twice in my first year and not after that (we're talking 1989/90). It was never done with a huge amount or malice and wasn't rife at all. Apparently the Children's Act outlawed corporal punishment but when it came in to effect I couldn't tell you. Hope I'm not gonna get anyone into trouble !
seems you are right, it was outlawed in 1999.
Seems there's no one on here from the dark ages of Hertford - my vintage. Well, you lot, you all seem to have it made nowadays judging by The Blue mag. - trips, beer, pizza, flats etc. Punishments? how about a silent weekend every so often because of a sullen look? A week sitting at the bottom of the table with the juniors when, in the upper sixth, one had the temerity to question an order? How about a month's washing dishes in ward for 36 people because one tried to wash and dry a pair of stiffening calico knicker(only renewed every three days) on a radiator in the dorm?How about waiting 7 years for a turn in 'little dorm - with only 4 beds instead of 18 - a privilege for the upper sixth - and then when you get there you're told the ward mistress has decided to let the juniors have it this year because you didn't make your bed well enough one day. How about having to expose your torso to the ward mistress and ask if you're ready for a bra (girls only, gents) , to be felt around and when you protest be told what's the matter? Do you think you've got breast cancer? That's enough for now - but there's plenty more, and I remember it from decades- yes, decades, ago. Some things don't fade.I would have preferred corporal punishment to the mind games, humiliations, and downright cruelty of all those withered old women who were in charge of us.
I can tell you that CH is nothing like that anymore at all.
I think girls houses are always more into mind games etc than physical bullying. But you're right, nothing like that goes on at CH anymore ... the school would get in serious trouble if it did!
rebel wrote: Some things don't fade.I would have preferred corporal punishment to the mind games, humiliations, and downright cruelty of all those withered old women who were in charge of us.
Blimey Rebel, glad to hear that you haven't been affected by the experience!
Actually, all this seems fairly typical of the more "traditional" type of boarding school for girls. My wife received her "education" at a convent school in Scotland. Some of the treatment received by the girls there would not have been be allowed in the average prison (even in the 70s).
In comparison I think we had a fairly good time at Horsham, despite the various forms of pettiness which I'm sure would exist in any comparable institution.
As for punishments, I must say that having one's arse beaten was not that much of a deterrent (leaving aside the inherent humiliation and the fact that some teachers might have been more keen on it than others, for whatever reason). One of the most precious commodities for us was free time - a detention on a Saturday evening was much more tiresome.
Re. your comments on another thread about getting some "older" posters on here, well, there are a few of us stumbling into middle age, so do keep visiting. The forum, as you can tell, is fairly new, and as there is a link from the main Old Blues site I'm sure there will soon be plenty of other old farts like us willing to chip in once in a while.
Corporal punishment was relatively common in my day (Col A 1952-61) though only masters could use it. It was a simple fact of life like gristle rather than meat in the stews under post war food restrictions (Miles and P.O. Paths were the punishments given and enforced by monitors).
Unfortunately Kit Aitken had a balance handicap which made his accuracy a bit suspect (well, IMHO the back of the knees were a bit off) but he was reputed as being no 2 in terms of pain index.
I recall one occasion - the day we went home at the end of term - when every boy in one dorm (ie about 26) got a couple with the cane for larking about at 2 am or so.
One reason for the lack of older Old Blues is that I've been working my way backwards through Friends Reunited - hence, not having got to the older years yet!
Simon and I have been working through, and have got back to around 1972 I think - will be continueing to do more years as time allows.
Sorry if that means it's a bit ageist at the moment!
If you've got Old Blue contacts, please do pass the word and get them involved. Send them the http://www.chforum.info link.
I remember the boys cutting notches in their girdles (why did they call them that?) every time they were "cracked" (hit with a shoe on the rump) or caned (same place, but, depending who the perpetrator was, implement ranged from a thin whippy cane to a broom handle that was once wielded by the king of vicious canings, Dr DHN) and once becoming carried away on the job of recording the latest assault on my derriere I managed to sever the belt into two, for which I earned an extra beating.