Boarding School Discipline

In 1965 I undertook a scholarship examination for a minor public school. I readily admit to feeling rather proud of myself when I passed the examination and my parents were also delighted at my achievement. They were not that well off, and without the scholarship money there was no way they could have afforded to send me to boarding school.

I can still remember our introductory visit to the school as if it were yesterday. New boys and their parents listened intently to Mr Lewis, the headmaster, as he spoke about the curriculum and the many varied activities. He also spent a few minutes discussing the school's disciplinary procedures, mentioning that the cane was used when deemed necessary. As I watched my father place his signature on the various consent forms, it occurred to me that my bottom was now vulnerable if I misbehaved or was lazy at my schoolwork.

I settled in at the school pretty quickly and I have to say I enjoyed my days there. I suppose that boarding school would not suit every boy and certainly in my day the regime was fairly harsh. Boys in my class who came from more privileged backgrounds than me had boarded at prep schools and were already battle hardened veterans as far as corporal punishment was concerned. However, my own experience only extended to the odd slippering at my state junior school and the thought of the cane certainly frightened me.

My first 'swishing' came in my second term for the offence of using the lawn that fronted the main school building as a shortcut when late for a lesson. I guess you could say that temptation got the better of me, for I was well aware that it was against the rules, the reason being obvious. That lawn was the first sight visitors saw and if all boys were to ignore the rule the fine green sward would soon have resembled a muddy field.

Mr Evans,he housemaster who punished me, was known as a hard caner. I paid dearly for taking that unauthorised shortcut: the pain was unbelievable and my poor backside ended up very well striped indeed. That was the first of a succession of beatings, sometimes for relatively trivial offences. However, one particular encounter with the housemaster's swishy cane, when I was a fourth former, especially sticks in the memory.

Like many boys before me, I had been caught smoking in the wooded area that surrounded the school grounds. I received the dread summons to the housemaster's study in the middle of a PT lesson, and was told I had to go immediately, so I reported for my punishment wearing my gym kit of singlet, white cotton shorts and plimsols. A heavy wooden stool had already been positioned in the centre of the study ready for me to bend over, and a shiny crook-handled cane was laying on Mr Evans' desk. He had caned me numerous times during my school career, but never across a pair of thin cotton PT shorts. It occurred to me later that he might have deliberately summoned me during my PT class in order to impart a more severe lesson than usual.

My name and offence were entered into the punishment book and I heard the dreaded words that many a boy feared: 'Bend over the stool'. It was constructed from stout oak with a padded brown leather seat and always felt surprisingly comfortable - at least until the caning began. My illicit smoking brought me a severe six of the best which left me close to tears. A housemaster's thrashing felt bad enough over your school trousers; now that I was wearing only PT shorts the sting felt much more intense and the hard springy cane seemed to bite right into my buttocks.

That caning certainly deterred me from smoking again, a fact for which I am grateful all these years later.