I was at Aldenham from 1932 – 1937, in Allsop’s House until 1936, which became English’s House when Allsop retired and Fred English took over.
Allsop and his wife were a kind and gentle couple. He was known as ‘Lopper’ by the boys as he had an unsteady gait due, we were told, to his overdoing athletics when a young man.
The assistant Housemaster was R C Clift, by far the most cultured and imaginative teacher in the School. He was a wealthy bachelor and was generous. He gave a statue of Hermes to the School which stood between the two swimming pools, the construction of which I believe he financed. He also presented the School with its main gates and the squash court. He was proficient at Fives and taught the game. He had a pleasant light tenor voice and was a good actor. He played the part of the defendant in ‘Trial by Jury’ with professional aplomb. He would drag his record player (an old fashioned machine with a huge horn and a wooden needle) into the passage outside his top floor sitting room in the House and play classical music for an hour or so after lights out. He was portly and walked with a confident air. He had a large Vauxhall and was a member of the Lansdowne Club, where he would sometimes entertain senior boys and where he died after playing squash. Michael Hiller, the brother of Wendy, was at the School and Clift had the thoughtfulness to take him to the first night of “Love on the Dole”, the play in which she made her name. Clift’s premature death was a great loss to the School. He was known as ‘Cocky’ by the boys.
In 1932 the Headmaster was Beck, a classicist and an Old Etonian. A man of dignity and presence with a pleasant baritone voice. His rendering of
‘A Bachelor Gay’ at a concert was charming. His wife was tall and known by the boys as ‘Lanky’; it was rumoured that she had been his cook.
Beck was succeeded by George Riding, a very different personality. Educated at Manchester Grammar School and, I think Baillol, he had none of the grandeur of Beck. One felt that he was making an effort to be a great Headmaster, which he never was.
Fred English (known as ‘Fred’ by the boys) taught French. He had a French wife. He was undoubtedly a good teacher but his severity and impatience caused him to be unpopular. Pupils used almost to shake with fear before entering his classroom. If one had ‘double Fred’ (a double lesson) it hung like a black threat until it was over for the week.
The Chaplain was Arthur, known as Charlie R. for having been in the Royal Flying Corps during World War 1. A charming man with a sense of humour. He also taught French, but in a much milder manner than Fred.
My final term was marred by a sex scandal. The attitude to boys participating in mutual masturbation was absurdly intolerant. Instead of counselling them kindly they were either expelled summarily or told to leave at the end of term, thus possibly damaging their futures. Riding had the whole School assembled to announce that two boys had been found misbehaving behind a piano in one of the music practice rooms. I can remember his portentous voice booming out the news: “I have had to write to their parents and request them to remove their sons forthwith”. Can you imagine what it was like to receive such a letter. It was like a bomb on the breakfast table.
Fred English was equally unreasonable in this matter. I was Captain of the House when the scandal broke loose when one of the boys complained about being interfered with by another, thus involving a number of other boys who were interrogated in a third degree manner. Two were expelled at once and several were told not to return next term. This was monstrously unfair. It was my duty to call Fred into the lower classroom for prayers after prep and supper. When I went along to his study during the scandal. Fred said, “I’m not going to pray with this House of filth”. Such lack of empathy, the non-existence of understanding was not less than reprehensible.
Living conditions at the School were pretty primitive. In Allsop’s there were two classrooms, one for the seniors and the other for the juniors. There were lockers round the walls for the pupils’ books and belongings and one fireplace round which only the Head Boys in the lower classroom could stand. “Anyone can get warm,” a senior boy would announce. This meant that all those present could gather round the fire. There were no chairs, only benches.
First, second and third term boys had to stand by the wall of the classroom after supper waiting for prayers. During this wait an unpopular boy might be ‘tiffed’ which meant he was roughly pushed about by those boys who no longer had to stand in line. This caused the victim more shame than pain. The boys of the first three terms were also fags, called, I think, boys, for the Praeposters, who would root (kick) on the door of the senior classroom next door to summon them. The last to appear at the door of the senior classroom was given the chore. Junior boys had to wear their jackets fully buttoned. After the fourth term one button could be left undone and Praeposters could wear their jackets open. In the first year nothing could be carried under the arms, books had to be carried in front like a tray. Going for a walk or watching a match boaters had to be worn.
On Sundays boys were allowed to visit Lord Aldenham’s grounds nearby. They consisted of beautifully laid out and kept gardens with walks and vistas. One had to ask the Housemasters permission to visit the park. “Can I go to Lord Aldenham’s please sir?” one would ask Lopper, who would take his pipe out of his mouth and say firmly “You may”.
The Officers Training Corps was really rather a farce. Several Ushers would dress up as officers and every Friday the boys would don a rough khaki jacket with brass buttons that had to be polished, sort of plus fours, puttees and boots that had to shine. We would do arms drill, march about, get shouted at and listen to lectures based on 1st World War experiences. It was assumed that in the event of war the boys would become officers who would command uneducated simpletons of the lower orders. I remember Clift, who (I believe reluctantly) became a Lieutenant telling a platoon how to explain something to the other ranks: “First you tell them what you’re going to tell them, then you tell them, then you tell them what you’ve told them.
An annual Corps photograph was taken by a professional photographer whose camera moved from right to left so that the long row of boys were included. On one occasion one bright boy ran from one end to the other and so appeared twice, to the fury of the staff, to the amusement of the boys.
The School patronised a Boys’ Club in Kentish Town and occasionally the Kentish Town boys would pay a visit to Aldenham. It was an embarrassing occasion and both the Kentish Town boys and the privileged schoolboys were relieved when the meeting was over. The Rev. Edgar Bentley (I think Bentley was the vicar to the Kentish Town parish. He was known as; Egger Begger’ and would preach at the School once a term. I remember his giving advice in the sermon (he would often digress amusingly from his theme) to those who had volunteered in the summer holidays to visit the Kentish Town Mission. He said ‘Don’t say anything like “Isn’t London empty now” as for them it’s the same all the year round’.
There was plenty of beating both by the Ushers and the Praeposters. A ‘potty bat’, a sawn off cricket bat was used. It could bruise. I don’t think this chastisement did either much harm or good.
On Mondays the first lesson was devoted to bible study. Clift used to begin this lesson by making boys with dubious vowels say, “How now brown cow”.
There was an official visit by a group of Nazi Youth. They made an impression as being fine, healthy boys with patriotic ideals, but this impression was not a lasting one. Also a sort of demonstration was made by some members of the Communist Party. Pamphlets were distributed. This was a result of an invitation to visit the School by Edward Johnson, a left wing pupil. He was expelled for his efforts. Nevertheless he did well at Downing College. Cambridge. He remained a life long member of the Communist Party and became a leading professor of Law at Newcastle University.
Aldenham, founded by a brewer at the end of the 16th Century as a Grammar School, became a Public School in the late 19th Century and began to cater, not for the local boys as Richard Platt, the founder, intended, but for the sons of the expanding middle classes. It was not a posh establishment and was not partially distinguished in either the groves of academe or on the playing fields. It was a fairly sound school and if it did inculcate snobbery in the minds of the boys that was perhaps inevitable in the uncertain Thirties.