School Life in 1950 by Richard Dadson (1947-1955)
WEEKDAYS -
7.15am - Chapel bell rung as ‘réveille’. Dormitory prefects would waken all those pretending to be asleep and get them into the washroom. The upper Cambridge dormitory would be subjected to bedside PE under the instruction of Housemaster
Christopher Tombleson! ‘Fags’ would clean their prefects shoes. (In the summer, when the weather was OK, there would be voluntary early morning swims in the pool in the woods, usually under the guidance of Mr Tombleson or, in his absence, Carrick Smith, (the French Master.)
7.50 - Breakfast. Usually cereal, something hot and toast. Tea from an urn, usually well stewed. We were allowed to have our own supply of jam, marmite or whatever to
supplement that provided.
8.20 - Bedmaking
8.30 - Visit to the nurse, if you felt ill or had any health problems. The clinic was on the ground floor of the main dormitory block, and the sanatorium on the top floor of the same building.
8.45 - Morning chapel. Hymn, bible reading (by day’s duty prefect), prayer.
9.00 - Assembly in Great Hall as and when Head decided necessary.
9,00-9-15 - Two periods of lessons
10.30 - Break. PE by class on what was then the Quadrangle. Prefects from Duty Prefect’s House would conduct a class each.
10.45 - Milk and biscuit (biscuit, NOT biscuits!)
11.00 - Lessons resume
12.40 - Prepare for lunch
1.00 - Lunch. Two course.We sat in Houses, always in the same seats. The tables are the same ones I’ve seen in the Dining Hall on recent visits, only with a more hygienic veneer on the top surface! Eight to each side, on benches, with a Full Prefect at the head and a Junior Prefect at the foot. Food would be put on the table in large containers and served in portions by the prefect(s).
2.00 - Two more lessons
3.30 - End of lessons for the day
3.30 - 5.30 - Activities (see below)
5.45 - Tea. Bread & butter, jam, cake and tea (urn again!)
6.30 - 8.00 - Prep in classroom. Duty prefects keeping order, Duty Master wandering around.
8.15 - Hot drink and biscuit
8.45 - Lights out for Junior Dormitories (Forms 1,2 &3)
9.30 - Lights out for all others
(Note - Baths were taken once a week as per a prescribed rota!) In addition, a shower could be taken with permission, a privilege not that often taken!!
SATURDAYS - Mornings as above, including lessons until lunchtime. Sports in the
afternoons. Prep in the evenings, as usual!!
SUNDAYS - Getting up, meals and bedtime as above. Morning Service at 10, allowing the Rev Greenaway to get to his parish service in Addington by 11!After lunch, from 1.45-2.15 we had to go to our classrooms and
write our weekly lesson home! Everyone was expected to write a letter and
would have to have a good reason not to! I do not think Mr Madden liked
getting letters from parents worried because little Johnny had not
written!!
Evensong at 6.30 - pupils were allowed to arrange the format of, and to conduct, some of these. The one evening of the week when there was no prep.
AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES:
Monday - Cadet Corps (Queen’s Regiment ACF), under Art Master William Wright, who held the rank of Captain.. Monday was also the day for the dentist to come. A beginning of term dental inspection would have revealed those scheduled to see the dentist - a most unpleasant experience under primitive conditions. Music lessons (private) would also excuse one or two from cadet corps.
Tuesday - Sports practice - Winter term - Soccer. Spring Term - Hockey (for Form 4 upwards) or soccer (Form 3 and below), Summer Term - cricket and/or athletics/swimming.
Wednesday - Occasional inter-school matches, otherwise more organised sports training.
Thursday - Exeat - for all those not ‘gated’. Gatings could be authorised by both masters and prefects. A book was kept in the Head’s office for gatings, giving names and offences!!
Friday - as Tuesday. Friday was also the day of each class’s PE session in the Gym. Our PE teacher was named Squires, he was in his 70s, fitter than any of us and a retired circus clown. Every other week he was accompanied by an ex-boxer named Johnson, who was even older and ‘taught’ boxing.
Saturday - The usual day for inter-school matches. All those not playing were expected to spectate and cheer the Russell team! Duty masters soon caught up with any absentees!
Sunday - We were all expected to do something. The choice was to go on a walk
organised by the Duty Master - usually to Shirley and back through the woods, or to organise an informal game of soccer, hockey or cricket, according to the season. The organiser would usually be a senior boy, and he would often recruit off-duty masters or Jack Weeks (the groundsman in those days, and no mean player) to make up numbers. A hairdresser also visited monthly on Sundays and everyone had to have a trim.
T H E N & N O W
Bill Forster (1948-1958) sent this photo of Hill View (the bungalow at the entrance to school) in the 1950’s. The driveway into school was one-way in those days, and trees lined Top Pitch. The second photo was taken in February 2007 on a very snowy day!
Print