I joined Aldenham in September 1929, a few days after my 14th birthday.
The House chosen by my parents was ‘Loppers’. Mr & Mrs Allsop and probably Matron lived in one part of the House separated from the inmates be a green baize door.
My first impressions were of the general pandemonium of the first day back. Boxes, large boys seventeen or eighteen years old seemed huge to new prep boys! Dressed for the first time in a black jacket, stripey trousers and, worst of all, a stiff white collar which was uncomfortable to wear and difficult to put on without the help of a mother!
The House itself was bleak, concrete passages, similar flights of stairs. Furniture consisted of heavy-duty tables for prep etc. and benches to sit upon; I do not remember any chairs. Personal lockers lined the walls. The only heating was from one large open fire, the perogative of the senior members of the Houseroom.
In the dormitories one washed in cold water. I think cold baths only applied to the more Spartan Gilbert’s House next door.
Arriving at Boarding School is rather like a game of Snakes and Ladders. Whatever one’s eminence may have been at prep school, one soon went down the snake! Life has tended to be the same – joining the services, starting a new job or joining a club. If you were sensible it proved a very useful lesson. In time, one tends to climb those ladders.
Next one had to learn School and House rules of dress and what you could and could not do. There was a certain amount of fagging for new boys and it lasted for about a School year. School and House Prefects dressed differently and instilled a certain amount of rough justice to break in the new boys. Much of it was quite absurd. I vividly remember being beaten for sweeping up the classroom or changing room using the broom in a conventional manner instead of upside down – apparently a House custom of which I was not aware or told!
I do not remember much about lessons. I think I started in Form 3A, jumping the following year to 4A under the rather aesthetic Mr Gilbert who was a good teacher and made me work hard. I do not remember him ever beating anyone, but his impositions were to learn pages and pages of Milton’s II Penseroso by heart!
The Science teachers were generally younger and more interesting. I did not enjoy leaning French with Mr English; I could never understand his dictation and have remained deaf to French pronunciation to this day!
Life out of the classroom during the winter was very dull. After tea, prep every night, occasional games of ping pong but no wireless. I can’t remember which newspapers we had, possibly the Daily Mirror. There was a portable gramophone for a little dance music.
In the summer one was allowed to have crystal sets which could be taken on to the cricket field in the evenings. The Library was a blessing.
Organised sport consisted of soccer and cricket, hockey came later. Unless one had come from your prep school with some sort of ‘colours’ you received no coaching. Consequently we were destined to play football on some wet and muddy pitches at the far end of the cricket field – a miserable business. Cricket was not much better unless one could bat or bowl! Together it put me off team games for life! Fortunately there was fives, a more individual game which I enjoyed playing. I was lucky to have Rupert Clift as Assistant Housemaster, a good player who encouraged the House team.
He had an enormous gramophone and used to play classical music sometimes – the sound of Ravel and other moderns used to float upstairs to the dormitories. I shall always think of him when I hear the Bolero, not Fred Astaire or Torville & Dean! He also taught English and must have introduced elocution to his classes, trying to make the provincial boys say “How now brown cow” etc, to make them speak in more of an accepted Aldenham accent.
The OTC used to march to the Battle Axes and back after weekly parade and drill. I soon realised that a rifle was heavier than a bugle would be, so I volunteered to join the band! Once a year the band would lead the contingent, drums beating and bugles blowing, to the memorial service at Aldenham Church, playing the Aldenham march interminably.
My OTC experience probably helped me later on to obtain a commission in
the TA in 1937.
At the start of the season it was possible to see the bottom of the swimming baths, but as the weeks went by they got greener and greener and ended up looking like pea soup. There was no filtration in those days but no harm seemed to come to anyone.
The School and inter – House swimming sports were one of the highlights of the summer term. I have a vague recollection that some of us we were taught or made to swim fully dressed in old clothes or maybe it was just a ‘fun race’. I also recall that we had to wear different coloured swimming trunks according to ability.
After passing modest exams in School Certificate and leaving School another stage of life started with the wearing of an OA tie, quite a thing in those days. I think I enjoyed my years there more in retrospect than at the actual time. By modern standards it seems a curious life but I am grateful for it. Subliminally it taught me self reliance, to eat whatever was offered and to fit in with other people. More important I made friends and have had the greatest of pleasure of all from being a member of the Old Aldenhamian Golfing Society since 1937.
In 1941 my son Nicholas was born. It was a very bad time in the war and the future seemed particularly uncertain. However, in a sentimental moment I entered him for Aldenham hoping that one day he might enjoy it too! I received a very nice letter in return from the Headmaster, G A Riding. Inconceivably I never spoke to H M Beck, his predecessor, in all the time I was at the School!!