our times tables. We had geography lessons, which were taught by rote at first. At seven, I remember reciting the rivers of England: ‘Tyne, Wear, Tees …’ all the way round. I didn't know where all these rivers were, but I knew the names and I could look them up on a map. As we moved on, we did geometry and algebra, and at the age of eleven we started Latin. It was a very wide syllabus and very well taught. The discipline was excellent. The boys played cricket and football and the girls played rounders. After that school, I went to the Liverpool Institute.
My brother and I used to take the half past eight Rock Ferry boat to Liverpool. It took twenty minutes. We would pass four or five big sailing ships – it was still the days of sail. We went across to the landing stage by the Liver Building, the Cunard Building and Mersey Docks Building. From there, we walked up Duke Street to the Institute.
The headmaster there was ruthless. When he arrived at the school, he came into our form room and set a history exam. During it, he spotted a history textbook under a desk, so he ordered us all into the school hall, where he stood us up on the platform and he sticked every one of us. ‘I'll purge you lot!’ he said. He was the only master who gave the stick. Usually, you went into his study and you were tapped down below to see that you didn't have an essay paper shoved down your trousers and then you received three strokes. Once, he spotted me running down the corridor and he sent me straight to his room and caned me. He wouldn't let me explain why I was running. The next day, he found out that I was running a message to a physics master, so he sent for me, apologised, and gave me two tickets for a Shakespeare play on the Saturday.
Tom Kirk
In September 1908, I went to a boarding school in Lytham run by an old family friend. He was determined that his boys should see life from as many angles as possible, so we had expeditions of all kinds. We took a cruise on the ‘mud-hopper’ up the Ribble to Preston and we watched Preston North End, the premier football team. The most exciting event was the first Air Display in 1909, where we watched Paul Chan sailing serenely above us in his Voisin biplane. The following year, Blériot arrived in his biplane, having just made the first crossing of the Channel.
We concentrated a lot on sport, which is common, I suppose, to all boarding schools. I think I fancied myself as a future county cricketer. On wet days, the headmaster would spend hours with us in the gym, bowling a tennis ball to the batsman or wielding a cricket stump – excellent practice for playing a straight bat. At soccer I played left back. We won many games against bigger schools, possibly due to the headmaster's dubious advice – ‘Go for the man, never mind the ball!’
Jim Davies
I was at minor public schools. I learnt French, German and Latin, Mathematics, Algebra, History, Geography, English. I didn't do very well. I was too lazy. I got as far as lower fourth, but the fees weren't paid because my father went bankrupt and I never went back again.
Maurice Edward Laws
For a career in the services, my public school background was invaluable. It taught discipline, and the idea of working for a team and not just your miserable self. Also, you met others of your own type. Nine out of ten officers came from public schools. Discipline was good at Lancing. I got beaten at times, for my own good, no doubt. In fact, I made it possible to insure against the cane. Three of us started a system whereby the small boys could insure at the beginning of the term for a small premium and if they were caned, they received sixpence a stroke. Some boys, of course, were on the grey list and had to pay a higher premium and some were on a blacklist and we wouldn't insure them at all. These were the bad risks. The scheme went very well for a while and we were paying out, but unfortunately, towards the end of the term, the numbers of beatings went up. The boys were short of money and so they started misbehaving so that they could be beaten and subsequently claim on their insurance. The headmaster inquired into the situation and shortly afterwards, the scheme went into involuntary liquidation. I don't think the headmaster particularly applauded our initiative.
Norman Musgrave Dillon
I went to Haileybury College in 1910. It was originally the student college for the students of the East India Company. It had many associations with India, such as the names of the houses and the servants. It was a fairly primitive place. The dormitories had boards on the floor and the food was pretty primitive. It was not a luxury school. Many of the public schools were much the same – at Eton, the bathing facilities were even less adequate than our own. We were out of bed at seven o'clock in the morning and down for chapel at half past seven. At quarter to eight we had our first lesson. Breakfast was at half past eight. The second lesson started at quarter past nine and on we went until noon. At noon, there was a break for lunch until one o'clock. The afternoon was taken up by games or a seven-mile run until four o'clock. From four until six, there were more lessons, ending up with supper at half past six. Supper was left-over bread with cocoa. Then we had ‘preparation’ – homework – and we were in bed by nine-thirty with lights out by ten.
The lessons you had depended which side you were on. If you were on the classical side, you had the normal English lectures and subjects but you had Latin and Greek thrown in. If you were on the modern side, you had a much more modern approach, with Physics and Chemistry. I was on the modern side and I did a great deal of handicraft work in the workshops. I had no bent for the classical side. I was intensely practical and I liked using my hands. When I left, I passed out top of the engineering branch.
Discipline was pretty severe. Most of the discipline came from the prefects. Their word was law. If you were late in the dormitory, they beat you. I was beaten once when I arrived as the clock was striking ten. The prefects kept bullying down. You only got into trouble with your housemaster if your form master found you unbearable, and he would give you a note to carry to the housemaster, who would give you the appropriate number of smacks with the stick. I would have thought that most boys passed through Haileybury with only two or three beatings.
The fagging system was in full force. An excellent system it was too. During the first three terms at the school, you were subject to this tyranny and you were liable to be a fag. Coming out from breakfast, you might hear a shout from across the quad: ‘Fag! Fag!’ Every boy had to run and the last one to arrive got the job, which might be to go down to the grub shop and buy something or collect some books or collect some boots from the bootmakers. If a prefect wanted a fag, he would call ‘Fag!’ in the dormitory and any boys liable to serve had to trot along quickly to his bed to see what he wanted. At Haileybury, each fag was at the beck and call of anybody senior.
Tom Kirk
I won a scholarship to Giggleswick – which relieved my mother of any further worry about school fees. What a joy after Seafield! A swim every morning in the cold swimming pool, Greek with dear old Hammond, Latin with Douglas, Maths with the genial Clark, French with Neumann – who took a fancy to me and gave me books until I was warned not to let him get too friendly. In those days nobody talked about homosexuality, bachelorship was a common occurrence. In fact, my final year at school was clouded by the ‘Jepson Affair’. Douglas Jepson was a keen cricketer who used to practise with me in the nets. I also shared a study with him and he developed a sort of ‘pash’ on me. Stupidly, I did not nip it in the bud and he became jealous and possessive and estranged many of my friends. Hindsight tells me that this was homosexuality, but at the time I was bewildered. He used to say, ‘Can I come and stay with you and perhaps marry one of your sisters?’ He did come too, but my sisters would have nothing to do with him.
Norman Musgrave Dillon
Sport was very important at Haileybury. In fact, the main aspiration above work and a classical knowledge
