Some accounts of schooldays corporal punishment extracted from published memoirs

Numerous biographies and autobiographies make some reference to schooldays and punishments suffered at the time. This page presents edited extracts from a selection of published books.

Peter Townsend became well known in the 1950s through his connection with Princess Margaret. His autobiography includes accounts of prep school and public school corporal punishment.

Dorian Williams was a well known showjumping commentator. At his prep school in the 1920s the headmaster dealt with offenders in the 'boxing room.'

T H White, later an eminent writer, appeared to have developed a taste for flagellation at his decidedly spartan public school.

Patrick Lichfield the society photographer attended Harrow School in the days of fagging and prefectorial beatings.

Colin Clark, son of art historian Lord Clark and brother of the well known MP and diarist, recalls the corporal punishment regime at Eton in the immdiate postwar years.