I was in Cox’s House from 1937 to 1939.
I remember that there were quite a few traditional rules relating to new boys, such as having all jacket buttons done up and not being allowed to walk across the grass from the House to lessons until after your first year.
Also the tradition of beating still prevailed for serious offences by the Housemaster and for lesser offences, such as not putting things in their proper place in the changing rooms (Chags) by one of the House Prefects. No one resented this; in fact there was slight glory in being the one who had the most strokes in a term.
On a more serious note the OTC was gaining importance over the period, particularly after the Munich crisis in 1938. We were told that while there was no guarantee that we would all become officers, (as of old) but they were going to need more officers than there were boys in the OTC’s. One of the officers in the corps was a Mr Chester. He had recently joined the School from Germany and was originally known as Mr Hans Ulrich Kuester, but changed his name shortly after he arrived. We all wore the old fashioned uniform with puttees and were issued with what was known as a swagger can. I still have mine with the School crest on the silver knob. Rifles were a scarce commodity and only available at the firing range. We all went to a regular army camp in the summer.
The impending 1939/45 war had an increasing effect on our lives culminating in complete blackout of the House at night after war was declared.
The local aerodrome was a very small affair with only one or two planes permanently there, but from time to time it was used for RAF pilots to practise landing and taking off etc. The craft were all biplanes.