110 replies to this topic

[Alan]

You boy!!!



Convinced now?

Edited by Alan, 12 December 2006 - 01:32 PM.

[eddiedunc]

Get off moy field

[Alan]

Now you're being giddy

[Alan]

Two other Cowley customs that I think that fat headmaster Walter Wright abolished during my time there. Prickle bumping whereby first years were ritually bounced on a bed of thistles by second years and being on a fags rota to run and fetch for prefects during your first year

A Cowley mystery that I still don't understand the origin of. Why was the first year called the Thirds, second your Shell, third year the Fourth and fourth year the Remove?

[Griffin]

Often wondered about Billy Bunter (the fat owl of the Remove) but only just looked it up. Apparently the term comes from the idea of being "removed" from your present form to a higher one. As regards the other business, no idea. Did Cowley ever have a preparatory department like West Park, where boys were paid for and started at age eight? That may have some bearing on the arcane names for forms.

[eddiedunc]

In a word yes

[Alan]

That explains why the the first year was called the thirds but why was the third year called the fourths and where does shell come from?

[eddiedunc]

not a clue

[Griffin]

It seems the intermediate form in some schools was called the "shell" after a shell-shaped building at Westminster school which housed that form.

[Alan]

Bleeding snob headmasters at Cowley. They seemed to want to adopt as many trappings of a pulic school as possible. Fagging system, form nomenclature, gowns and common-rooms for prefects, frowning on soccer and rugby league, special tasselled caps for what I can't remember. They even introduced a specially piped blazer, for what again I've forgotten.

[Griffin]

I believe many grammar schools consciously adopted the customs of the public schools. West Park had straightforward numbering of forms, at least in my time, but I think I remember when the head prefect was able to administer the cane. No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong. What is curious is that Rugby football (known to some hereabouts as Rugby Union) is not played at Westminster. The school game is Association football; rightly so, as Westminster appears to have originated, or at least co-founded the game. They are a very ancient school, of course. They also owned the rights to Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne was an Old Boy) which they sold to Disney. Talk about art treasures going abroad.

[Voll]

Alan, lads who were "capped" for rugby were given a maroon, velvet cap that had a white, silk tassle.
I think I remember seeing the odd piped blazer when I first started in Sept '55 but by then black blazers were replacing the old maroon ones and I think piping stopped being used at about the same time. Did the piping identify prefects?

Edited by Voll, 12 December 2006 - 08:29 PM.

[Alan]

I think so Voll. Walter Wright introduced an additional lower rank of prefect called monitor. I think Flash may have had a hand in the necessary qualities as they were invariably first fifteen members

[Alan]

Bump! By a strange coincidence, I just found my old school reports in a drawer when I was looking for something else. They don't make good reading!

On a seperate issue, how did our parents afford all the uniform and kit necessary when we started? As I remember, the dearest shop in town, Tyrers, had the sole rights to such as blazer badges, caps, ties and rugby shirts. It must have been a real sacrifice for our parents back in those austerity 50s days

[eddiedunc]

Alan, on Dec 12 2006, 08:21 PM, said:

I think so Voll. Walter Wright introduced an additional lower rank of prefect called monitor. I think Flash may have had a hand in the necessary qualities as they were invariably first fifteen members

There were monitors before Wright's time.