What characterises the best of the British boarding school tradition? I would say it was the remorseless brutality that ground the soul out of you - that's about the finest measure. Very character building! Took me a couple of breakdowns to wash the place out of me. Now, exactly what was it? The random violence of the staff or the persistent violence of the boys ? Which did the most damage? Boarders cooped up 24/7 turning on each other; prefects that ran the place through terror; staff that were on the edge of perversion - take your pick.
Some scenes for you to conjure with. I witnessed all of these during the five years I spent boarding between the age of thirteen and eighteen. Formative years indeed.
1
The Senior prefects' room. Two prefects have thrown a 15 year old into the corner behind one of their armchairs and are kicking him. He crawls out of the corner and leaves the room with blood around his mouth.
2
Two sub-prefect/dormitory leaders taking a fourteen year old boy out onto the top of main block fire escape. One hold him over the rails by his heels. The other lies down on the fire escape floor with his arms out through the bars waiting to catch the unfortunate. They torment the boy with false releases before they try-out their "drop and catch" for real.
3
One of the above sub-prefects, who later left to join the South African Police, where he no doubt put to good use the skills he had learned, hanging a 13 year old boy from the ceiling by his wrists with a rope until he "confessed". He also tried suspending boys by their thumbs. A question of tying a good slip knot in a fine enough cord, I think. Bit of a perfectionist really. Kept trying differing methods to see which worked best.
4
A classroom full of boarders, each filing past a seated boy and each and every one hitting him around the head with their books as they left the room. I am as guilty as the rest in this. The sport of "get S____" continued for weeks until he ran away from school, a completely broken person. The "getting" included his bed, locker, possessions, everything that was to do with him in any way.
5
A sub-prefect carving his initials into a 14 year old boy's arm each meal time. The carving was done with a blunt dinner knife. Salt was rubbed into the wound each time. It took six weeks of doing this every day until he was satisfied with the permanently raised initials. The child concerned will carry those carved initials for the rest of his life.
6
The punishment of "blading". Younger boys being hit on the back of the hand with dinner knife blades. Sixth-formers competing to see who could "score" the most "bleeds".
7
Buggery was rampant amongst most of the younger boarders. It seemed to die away by about 15 to 16. I didn't join the school until the 3rd year [13-14 year olds]. One boy was surprised that I missed out. He confessed to me that he had done it with many of the boarders in the year. I think most boys had experimented between the ages of 12 and 14.
8
When I was 16, having my head slammed repeatedly against the hall wall by a prefect for singing out of tune. He held me by the hair and slammed my head into the wall between bouts of shouting at me. I was dazed after. In retrospect I think I may have had some degree of concussion.
9
Being caned so hard by the headmaster that the skin on my buttocks burst. I had to peel my pants out of the wounds that night. They were stuck to me by the congealed blood.
10
Being knifed in the shoulder by another pupil. The knife hit the bone and stuck in. I still carry the small, but non-the-less real, scar.
11
Being caned by the then Rural Science/ Biology teacher - we called him “Digger” . He overheard me using a swear word in conversation with another boy. I was 17 at the time. He organised for me to go to the lab at the top of one of the old block at the end of school. There he caned me. At that time the legal maximum was six strokes. I counted to six - he carried on to twelve. When he had finished and told me to stand up and face him. I turned with my head down. I was determined that not only would I not cry out, that I had achieved, but I was also determined that not so much as one sign of pain or one trace of a tear would be found. To do this the form was to slowly raise your eyes to theirs and show them that you don't care - that was the best way to show contempt. Whilst raising my eyes from ground level I noticed that he had a large erection. I suppose the extra half dozen were for him, not for me.
12
A teacher, who we called “Tojo”, dragging a boy out of his seat and throwing him down on the floor before flailing about the boy with a cane. I have no idea how long the attack lasted. It happened every lesson for some weeks. “Tojo” gave up teaching soon after to play piano on a cruise ship, so I guess boys were not the only victims.
13
At one of the termly dances when girls were allowed to come into the school, one unfortunate girl refused to dance with one of the boys. Two other boys took her outside, held her against a wall and repeatedly kneed her in the crutch.
I was quite good at keeping my head down and fared a lot better than many.
As for the staff – where to begin? The P.E. teacher - no, he wasn't the worst. He certainly had his moments and never missed an opportunity for a good caning and did indulge in setting very early morning runs around the school field as a punishment so that the unfortunate boy would start the day exhausted. Then there was the R.E teacher who was a little bit too caring and affectionate towards the boys. But the worst? That honour probably does to the perverted duo of Bruiser (can't remember his proper name) and 'slop. They were both boarding masters in charge of the same block, one floor each. They took a deep pleasure in inflicting pain. Bruiser would go out drinking, return drunk, and then drag boys out of bed in order to cane them. 'sop preferred that the caning was done with an eye to his later sexual pleasure. Wonderful duo.
However, I have a suspicion that it had been even worse before my time.
It was only in 1948 that the last boy was birched in front of the whole school.
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