Recollections of school c.p. in the sixties and seventies

PREP SCHOOL BOY

Back in the 1960s I spent five years between the ages of eight and 13 at a
typical English prep school. Because of its comparatively remote location
the 60 boys were almost all boarders. Although there was, I am sure, a
Board of Governors, in practice the running of the school was entirely in
the hands of the headmaster. The headmaster was a firm believer in corporal
punishment, as was his deputy. In addition, as head of domestic arrangements,
the school matron used to administer 'smack bottoms' to the younger boys if they
misbehaved in the dormitories. These spankings were, I believe, entirely
unofficial in nature but no one ever complained.

The formal punishment system at the school involved the award of black marks
and being put 'on report'. A boy on report had to take a record card to each lesson
to be signed by the master. Any misconduct or laziness was duly noted on the card.
Three black marks or being on report for more than three weeks automatically led
to a break-time visit to the deputy head's office for a slippering. However, if the boy
was a persistent offender he might well receive a caning rather than the slipper.

You also got sent to the deputy head for corporal punishment if you lost more than
three items of games kit during the term. On average two or three boys a day had to
report to the deputy head's study to suffer a sore backside. The busiest day was Friday
when the five or six boys on report had their report cards examined. If the card was
deemed to be unsatisfactory the unfortunate boy received a slippering. I can recall
that at least three boys were whacked each Friday for having poor reports.

The deputy head’s slipper was in fact a flexible rubber-soled gymshoe. You had to
bend over and touch your toes to receive anything from three to six of the best
across your regulation corduroy shorts. The result was a hot stinging pain and
glowing buttocks. I remember going to a PE lesson just after suffering four of the
best with the slipper for mislaying items of games kit. The other boys in the changing
room were greatly amused to see the marks from the gymshoe imprinted across
my backside.

The deputy head also possessed a small cane, complete with a curved handle,
deemed suitable for application to the bottoms of boys of young prep school pupils.
You had to bend over, gripping the legs of a chair with the top of your head resting on
the seat. The worst offences merited six of the best: quite an ordeal for a nine-year-old.

The headmaster's punishments were less frequent and were normally given for major
infractions of the school rules. To be sent to the head was a big event. If ever a boy
was unfortunate enough to have has name called out during assembly a terrible hush
would descend and the boy would walk out in silence, often with tears in his eyes, as
he knew he was to be beaten. The worst part was the headmaster's insistence that the
offender had to drop his shorts for the beating. The headmaster employed either a big
leather slipper or a very flexible and stingy cane. You bent over and held your ankles
for the slipper but because the cane hurt a lot more you were permitted the support of
a special low-backed chair.

Looking back I suppose I must have been a naughty boy for I was whacked
quite a lot at prep school. I used to get the cane once or twice a term, the
slipper rather more frequently and occasional spankings from Matron on top.
In statistical terms, I was probably in the upper quartile of those punished. I
think about half the boys were never or very rarely punished. On the other hand,
there was a small group of boys - perhaps five in number - who must have been
beaten on a weeekly basis. Their behaviour never seemed to improve, so one wonders
whether corporal punishment can ever be effective with such hard cases.

In 1970 at the age of 13, I progressed to a second division public school in
the South East of England as a boarder. The headmaster, the housemasters and,
in theory, the prefects were all permitted to wield the cane. As in many such
schools the PE master also slippered boys on a semi-official basis: if you
misbehaved in his class you had to bend over for a dose from his gymshoe.

In point of fact this was a civilised school and corporal punishment was not that
commonplace. (Indeed, some of the old established English public schools phased
out the cane some years before schools in the state sector.) I never heard of a
prefect’s caning - the rules requiring the presence of witnesses and prior permission
from the housemaster were just too onerous, I expect. Most canings were given by
the housemasters. Interestingly, one housemaster declared himself to be anti-corporal
punishment (the first ever member of staff to do so) and as far as I know his house was
no worse disciplined than any other in the school - which tends to support the theory
of the abolitionists that the cane isn’t guaranteed to be effective with teenage
boys.

When I was 15 a change of family circumstances meant that I changed to a state
grammar school (one of the old direct grant establishments). In contrast to the state
of affairs at my former school, the grammar school headmaster was an enthusiastic
caner. It was not unusual to go pass the headmaster's study and see a boy standing
outside awaiting corporal punishment.

I soon earned a caning for skiving off for the afternoon. I was finding the academic
demands of my new school to be rather onerous and deliberately absented myself
during an afternoon of double physics and French - my two worst subjects. I was
spotted outside school by a master and the next day had to report to the head.

There ensued a brief interview followed by the inevitable sentence of a caning. A
formidable looking cane, some 30 inches in length, straight and shiny (and
lacking the curved handle beloved of cartoonists) was fetched from the small records
office adjacent to the study. I was made to bend over a chair and duly given four of
the best across the seat of my trousers. Because I had realised the likely consequences
of my truanting I had worn a couple of extra pairs of underpants to school that
day and my subterfuge managed to fool the headmaster. The caning certainly hurt,
but the extra layer of clothing probably took the edge off the sting. That being
said, the marks on my bottom lasted for several days. It was the last caning of
my school career.