I was the second of three brothers in Mead’s House at Aldenham School from Summer Term 1933 to the end of the Summer Term 1937. My eldest brother was there at the same time three years senior and was a Scholar and Prefect and my younger brother came two years after me. My elder brother was a House Prefect on my arrival, which sometimes caused embarrassing situations especially as he was bright enough to gain a Scholarship and I was not. My first term was the Headmaster’s (Beck’s) last to be followed by Riding who made many changes, not all for the better. He immediately called School Examiners in and about three popular Masters were sacked as a consequence. We all attended Aldenham School because we lived in Northwood, Middlesex nearby, so it was convenient but also because an Uncle attended the School before the First World War.
In 1933 there were I think about 220 boys divided into four houses then named after the current Housemasters. I was in Paull’s (then known as Mead’s) which like Cox’s and Alsopp’s had about 45 boys each. The School House had 90 boys divided into Odds and Evens, again about 45 boys each to establish approximate equality in Sports and House matches etc.
At that time the School seemed very remote. Radlett the nearest town (out of bounds) and one had very little contact with the outside world for three months apart from exeats on Sundays. Full exeats were on Sundays after Chapel and before lunch but there were also minor exeats after lunch on Sunday. I cannot now remember how many were allowed per term – but not many. I think three long exeats were allowed.
As a result of this restricted life, contact with the female sex was practically non-existent and some boys got to the state when they thought the elderly matron was attractive or perhaps one of the maids. There was a minor scandal in Mead’s House in my time when a contemporary started, I suppose, probably a quite harmless affair with one of the maids, meeting before breakfast in the small house library until discovered (not very romantic!). No names as he is still alive today! But not surprising in view of the lack of healthy contact with the opposite sex of which more later.
Pocket money was a shilling a week, paid out by the Housemaster and it is today astonishing what one could buy at the Tuck Shop – enough on occasions to make one sick!
I think one had to be a ‘Fag’ for the first three terms but for Prefects only who had a small study together. On the cry of ‘Fag’ all those eligible had to rush into the room and the last one in got the job. The Prefects (or were they praeposters?) had the power to beat but I think it was used very rarely and I do not remember faggings as being very onerous mainly, cleaning O.T.C. Uniforms and shoes etc.
Several incidents have remained in my mind which I incorporate in this account which I hope will be interesting due to the change of thought and customs since I was at Aldenham over sixty years ago. It would be interesting to know how these incidents would be or are dealt with now or viewed.
Firstly, I still remember vividly my first night at Mead’s House when I arrived a day late due to a holiday the Family and I had been on. Being Summer Term 1933, there was only one other new boy. After prayers at 9.00pm, the Housemaster, Mr Mead, made the announcement that one boy – George Armstrong Lushington Tulloch from Ireland had returned earlier that day ‘inebriated’. Evidently the journey from Ireland had required a certain amount of refreshment but I cannot remember now what actual word was used – perhaps drunk. In any event he was going to beat him there and then in front of the House and only about 3ft in front of me – a poor homesick new boy. Tulloch was sent out to get the instrument of torture – either a Potty Bat used for Bat fives or a cricket bat sawn off just under the splice while we waited for his return. Thereupon he was told to bend over and six blows were administered. I can see now the dust arising from each blow.
Tulloch was a charming Irish boy and probably joined the IRA later in life as a result! I know he had nothing to do with the School as an OA. I wonder how this situation would be dealt with today? I presume no beating? One can imagine the effect on a small boy of 13 on his first night at school away from home. Certainly I have remembered it all these years quite vividly.
One other peculiarity of Mead’s House – I do not think there was anything similar in the other Houses – was ‘New Mans Singing’ and ‘New Mans PT’, still then in existence – a cruel penance for the first six terms. ‘New Mans Singing’ meant appearing on a table after Chapel (half term) before the Upper Class Room and singing a song until told to stop. Then walking round the members of the Upper Classroom bent double while they kicked you, not very hard unless you were very unpopular. ‘New Mans PT’ on the last Sunday of term after Chapel was a different matter. Highly dangerous at times and unpleasant and really dreaded by some boys. This as the name suggests consisted of violent PT to the limits of ones endurance and races, last boy beaten. All the tables, benches, chairs etc. were piled into the centre of the Classroom and races took place into them and through them. I cannot understand why more were not hurt. Then there were races down into the coal hold in the year. The brave ones vaulted over the rails straight down to the bottom. Highly dangerous to those below. For those still having to do it (six terms) it ruined the end of term. It was eventually stopped just as I was about to enter the Upper Classroom – Mead House being the last to carry on with this cruel tradition.
Another Mead House tradition was the obligation to swing across the ceiling bar, over one of the larger dormitories at the top of the house. For some no problem, but for the less athletic a dread and anxiety until accomplished. I seem to remember that if the journey across could not be accomplished a financial penalty was imposed payable to the other members of the dormitory.
A further bore was the creation of ‘Fred’s Field’, a football pitch being excavated and levelled by the hand, pick, shovel and sweat of the boys. Every day Fred English would accost boys like the Press Gang of olden times and if not playing regular games were ‘persuaded’ to join the gang and level the field. Quite a large volume of soil had to be removed. I suppose today a digger would do the job in about two days but in my day one felt as those building the pyramids must have felt. Do any boys playing on the field now realise the sweat and toil put into it by previous generations? Perhaps there should be a plaque to remind present pupils!
The standard school punishment used to be running round the Reservoirs and this happened more than once. On one occasion it was imposed by the Prefects on the whole School because one Master, Clift, was hissed at a gathering in the gym – but why I cannot now remember. I am not sure now how many miles it is – but quite a long way and it was a trial to some of the non-athletic. On the other hand the Reservoir came into its own when we ever had a lengthy spell of freezing weather and the reservoir froze over. I have never again experienced elsewhere skating like this in the open air. Skating on frozen fresh lake water seemed quite different to skating artificially indoors. Unfortunately I think this only happened twice in my time.
Chapel before breakfast was also the custom before Riding delayed it till after breakfast. I think it was at 8.00am and the bell of the old chapel started ringing about 7.50am or 7.55am. In any event it was incredible how a boy could get dressed when the bell started tolling putting on a stiff collar etc. and get into chapel before the tolling ceased. I imagine religion was taken more seriously in my day – chapel every day and twice on Sundays and compulsory. When Easter was in term time, much was made of it, religious lectures and lessons for the week prior and Chapel three times on Good Friday. Only two attendances were compulsory on that day and I and another boy at Mead’s House called Charney were the only boys in the whole school who stood down from one of the services – an act for which I have been proud ever since! Certainly Riding was very hung up on religion and sex.
One question I am asked specifically in your letter is about the Hitler youth movement and its visit to the School. You state in 1938 – perhaps they made a second visit but the visit I remember was 1936. I had left the School by 1938. I cannot recollect very much about the visit except the German boys came in a bus, about 20 I would guess, with a Master not out of place later in the Gestapo. The School hockey 1st XI played them and lost I believe 4-1 – to the embarrassment of the School. One memory I do still have is of the German visitors sitting in their bus prior to departure looking out very stonily at us without anything like a smile and certainly we all, Masters as well, had done their best to be friendly. I cannot think the visit did anything either way to improve relations.
Another team to visit us was a Football eleven from the mighty Arsenal with the famous Ted Drake playing. Obviously they won and I only mention it as I saw a later visit Post War mentioned in the Aldenhamian and it was described as a historic first visit. Well, there was a previous one around 1936.
You also ask about Remembrance Day – 1914/18 (or Armistice Sunday). This was marked by a special parade of the OTC and a march down to Aldenham Village for the Remembrance Service with the band playing. Of course there was the plaque to the OAs killed in the First World War and a lengthy list it is. I can remember looking at it in Chapel many times and wondering if those days would come again. Little did one know!
The General Strike was before my time and I do not remember any particular interest in Fascism or Communism before 1937 when I went up to Cambridge where the political scene was much more aware. There were however about three boys politically conscious and I think with left wing or communist leanings. One – E L Johnson (should I mention names – he is dead now!) was very politically active and brought down a party I think of Communist sympathisers and distributed leaflets and propaganda at the gates. Quite a row and poor E L Johnson got severely kicked around the cricket ground. One of the visitors in charge was called I think Giles Romily, or something similar and was a nephew of Winston Churchill. Quite a stir at the time but a bit over the head of most of us then. I seem to remember there was a bit of skirmishing at the gate between senior boys and the visitors.
One of the biggest changes between my time 33-37 and the present must be in the attitude towards sex and I will mention one or two incidents of my days as I am sure the contrast must now appear great to a modern boy when he learns of attitudes Pre War, and as sex is now viewed so openly, both types, I cannot see any harm mentioning it in these few notes.
Certainly Aldenham in 1933 was still Victorian in its attitude towards the sexual problems of a boarding school and discipline. As I have said above the boys locked away for three months remote from any town certainly became very frustrated and liaisons were formed. Some Houses, Mead’s for instance, was quite pure though often sexual friendships took place. Really they meant nothing in the long term but their discovery by the staff and particularly Riding, the HM, was regarded as perdition and sins of the worst type. It is so hard to imagine now when homosexuality is accepted openly in all walks of society. But discovery meant expulsion forthwith. How well I remember on one occasion the whole school being summonsed to the gym at 9.00am. The Headmaster stormed up the aisle wrapping his gown around himself – a habit he had when on the platform, and described how some poor boy had been discovered in a sexual relationship with another and even then was on his way home. He described vividly how he had phoned the poor parents and “thrown a Mills bomb on the breakfast table” and how he went on and related “how he had stirred with his muck rake” etc. I still remember his words now over sixty years later as we sat and shivered and thought of the poor boy on his way home. I have often wondered what happened to them in later life, as they do not appear in the School Register.
A related point has occurred to me and this was the indiscriminate power to beat by any Master not necessarily connected with one’s House, and there seemed no obligation to report a beating to one’s Housemaster. Looking back now it was a generous license given to Masters without any control and I am sure sometimes personal likes and dislikes came into it. I was once beaten by Roche the German Master for not turning up at a swimming heat which was of course quite voluntary, due to a headache. But it gave him a chance!
Another incident which would be considered laughable and grotesque today was Riding forbidding the showing of certain film slides of bare breasted native girls used to illustrate a lecture given by the well known OA and Malaysian explorer ‘Noone’. Noone came to the School and gave a demonstration of shooting with a blowpipe and later gave a serious talk on life in the jungle. Part of the talk were these slides of the natives in the Malaysian jungle and some showed partly clad native girls. All prevented by Riding! How different today, almost unbelievable.
I imagine this entire scene is quite different today and I wonder how it is dealt with at all bearing in mind current permissive legislation and the almost complete acceptance of homosexuality in the country. And what affect the admission of girls has had. Much healthier I am sure. Perhaps pupils today enjoying their sexual freedom or at least enlightenment should know it was not always so.
Looking back as I write this, I might mention the Custom of ‘linking arms’ when, say walking to Chapel. It was the practice of 2-3 boys to join up and link arms together in a fairly fixed liaison. I believe the qualification was different to each House but I think in Mead’s House you could not ‘link’ until you had been there three terms. I only mention this as thinking back it suddenly occurred to me that this might be an example of ‘latent’ attraction between the boys. I think also there was some custom about undoing jacket buttons but I cannot now remember what it was.
Before concluding I might mention the obligation of having a cold bath every morning before getting dressed. Does this still exist? A quick dash with a towel in and out very quickly. But many boys did not do it and several pretended to have had a dip. Does it happen now? Did it do any good I wonder?
Though I know that as in war one probably tends to only mention the good times, nevertheless looking back my time at Aldenham does seem to have been a happy one, especially if one was reasonably good at games and work.
And how fit one was. Regular set games of course each afternoon but we often played Eton fives before breakfast and in the evening after games, football in the shed and regular PT in the morning break. I do not suppose we were ever so fit again, certainly not at Cambridge when I left school and during service in the Royal Navy of 6½ years. Since then a sad steady decline! But I am sure the basis of fitness created during the school years was a source of good health in later life.
Slang
Poche -Pocket Money
Guffy -Cheeky/rude
Masters -Ushers
In Armoury -Buckingham Palace
Battleaxes (Pub) -Battleaggers
Jack (Master) -Jacko
Mead (Master) -Tibby
Alsopp (Master) -Lopper
English (Master) -Fred
Cox (Master) -Sammy
Stott (Master) -Scabby
Miss Mead (Housekeeper Mead’s) -Tabatha
Evans (Master) -Jock
Vaisey (Master) -George