Charles Spencer - Anyone else suffer "abuse"?
Discussion
Dixy said:
As for cainings, when administered by a house master they had to be witnessed by the head of house, I can tell you that left me feeling more uncomfortable than being beaten.
Back in the 40's the Head of House did the canings. My father as Head of House only carried it out once - to a fellow six former who was a sadistic b
d. Times really have changed.
Here's one I had removed from the memory banks.
Anyone recall a psychotic Welsh rugby player, surname Ringer?
His brother appeared at our school as a PE teacher, made all small boys lives a misery and disappeared as quickly as he arrived.
He was the epitome of a, never touched me though perhaps he recognised a spiteful little fker when he saw one.
That's enough now, even though I left education in 78 the memories don't do me any favours.
Anyone recall a psychotic Welsh rugby player, surname Ringer?
His brother appeared at our school as a PE teacher, made all small boys lives a misery and disappeared as quickly as he arrived.
He was the epitome of a
, never touched me though perhaps he recognised a spiteful little fker when he saw one.That's enough now, even though I left education in 78 the memories don't do me any favours.
Posted something on another thread about similar - well, corporal punishment ie caning. Spencer's abuse is long lasting. I never even think of what I had as lasting, in fact, I never think about it - unless something like this comes up for a viewpoint.
I can't recall what I'd done to deserve canings, but I'm talking mid 50s to early 60s when a few sadistic teachers mingled with the excellent ones. I was once in a queue at Junior school for a caning on the hand - again, can't recall why, likely something trivial (to us anyway, about 10 of us in the line outside Head's room). Poor sod in front of me pulled his hand back - rattan cut all four fingers, that bad he needed medical attention. I learnt fast and the stroke hit the rear of my palm, apart from a very warm glow that was it.
Secondary School, caning was more prolific. I once had it for apparently 'setting fire to the Music store cupboard', the first and only I knew of it was being told to go to Headmaster's office. I strenuously denied it because that was the truth. I think much of it was down to the then music teacher loathing me, I loathed music lessons (today I love music! LOL). No baring of the arse though which allowed a padding if known in advance. It was knowledge that the Head (or his Dep) always turned their head away while caning.
My end of school report was great all through, except 'Music' - the dozy sod gave me: 'E minus - Seems unable to grasp this kind of subject.' I'm quite proud of that still. LOL
Sadistic teachers - the worst was one who took PE and also (hard to believe, or maybe not), Religious Education. First PE lesson was swimming - (I couldn't) and when the fker found out he picked me up by the waist and dropped me in - the deep end! If it weren't for my pals (all of whom could swim, I probably wouldn't be here penning these words now). I still cannot swim well, but if dropped in a pool I could get out or make it to the other side.
Worse. I was with a group in the gymnasium, three of us messing about after one PE lesson. One pal took a pair of boxing gloves from a cage and put them on doing a Cassius Clay routine. In he (Mr Sadistic) marches and 'Oh, sparring are we lads? I'll show you how to use them properly!'
He grabs himself a pair of gloves and literally floors my pal after a full on in his chest! We start to scatter and he yells. 'Stay where you are!' I thought we were all gonna get a pasting, but no, the utter cock told us to get out and get changed.
We used to have a nickname for said teach, 'Froggy'. No, he wasn't French, can't recall why. He lived only doors from the school. In 1966 when we all left school, one of my pals had never lost his utter resentment for the sadistic barsteward. On our daily walk or cycle to school we crossed an area called 'the moors'. Pal collected bags and bags of live baby 'frogs'. This, our last school day, they all ended up going through Froggy's letterbox - poetic justice. Some at the time said it was cruel (on the frogs). But within months the 'moors' land was being concreted over (housing), so perhaps not.
The cane had its advantages too.
On starting Secondary, for some inexplicable reason I got picked on by a small bunch of 'older' pupils. I was a tall kid. Perhaps that was it? Early morns I'd get thump from one of the sods. Followed by a second thump from another with: 'That extra one is to make sure you don't tell anyone, eh?'
This went on for a while. Pals all advised me to tell my parents. Sod off! Those days that was the last thing you'd do.
Well, eventually I'd had enough, I did tell. I went to the Headmaster.
Still recall as I walked down the corridor with the thought, 'this is daft, I'm gonna end up with another caning.'
Not so. He just asked for all four names and could anyone back this up? I gave the names of my pals.
Back to lessons. Nothing. One of my pals telling me my future: 'Christ Dan, that was bloody foolish, you're are going to end up a mess.'
Next day.
All in school hall for usual morning assembly, me miming (I couldn't sing to save my life) to hymns etc. All finished, everyone ready to go off to classes, then Head comes out onto stage, he has an announcement. The 'four' pupils walk slowly on, heads bowed. A school mate from back then now tells me it was ‘five’ not 'four', he's prob right).
I literally could have peed myself as all were caned in front of the school. Ha ha. I was never troubled again.
Did someone say bring the cane back?
I can't recall what I'd done to deserve canings, but I'm talking mid 50s to early 60s when a few sadistic teachers mingled with the excellent ones. I was once in a queue at Junior school for a caning on the hand - again, can't recall why, likely something trivial (to us anyway, about 10 of us in the line outside Head's room). Poor sod in front of me pulled his hand back - rattan cut all four fingers, that bad he needed medical attention. I learnt fast and the stroke hit the rear of my palm, apart from a very warm glow that was it.
Secondary School, caning was more prolific. I once had it for apparently 'setting fire to the Music store cupboard', the first and only I knew of it was being told to go to Headmaster's office. I strenuously denied it because that was the truth. I think much of it was down to the then music teacher loathing me, I loathed music lessons (today I love music! LOL). No baring of the arse though which allowed a padding if known in advance. It was knowledge that the Head (or his Dep) always turned their head away while caning.
My end of school report was great all through, except 'Music' - the dozy sod gave me: 'E minus - Seems unable to grasp this kind of subject.' I'm quite proud of that still. LOL
Sadistic teachers - the worst was one who took PE and also (hard to believe, or maybe not), Religious Education. First PE lesson was swimming - (I couldn't) and when the f
ker found out he picked me up by the waist and dropped me in - the deep end! If it weren't for my pals (all of whom could swim, I probably wouldn't be here penning these words now). I still cannot swim well, but if dropped in a pool I could get out or make it to the other side. Worse. I was with a group in the gymnasium, three of us messing about after one PE lesson. One pal took a pair of boxing gloves from a cage and put them on doing a Cassius Clay routine. In he (Mr Sadistic) marches and 'Oh, sparring are we lads? I'll show you how to use them properly!'
He grabs himself a pair of gloves and literally floors my pal after a full on in his chest! We start to scatter and he yells. 'Stay where you are!' I thought we were all gonna get a pasting, but no, the utter cock told us to get out and get changed.
We used to have a nickname for said teach, 'Froggy'. No, he wasn't French, can't recall why. He lived only doors from the school. In 1966 when we all left school, one of my pals had never lost his utter resentment for the sadistic barsteward. On our daily walk or cycle to school we crossed an area called 'the moors'. Pal collected bags and bags of live baby 'frogs'. This, our last school day, they all ended up going through Froggy's letterbox - poetic justice. Some at the time said it was cruel (on the frogs). But within months the 'moors' land was being concreted over (housing), so perhaps not.
The cane had its advantages too.
On starting Secondary, for some inexplicable reason I got picked on by a small bunch of 'older' pupils. I was a tall kid. Perhaps that was it? Early morns I'd get thump from one of the sods. Followed by a second thump from another with: 'That extra one is to make sure you don't tell anyone, eh?'
This went on for a while. Pals all advised me to tell my parents. Sod off! Those days that was the last thing you'd do.
Well, eventually I'd had enough, I did tell. I went to the Headmaster.
Still recall as I walked down the corridor with the thought, 'this is daft, I'm gonna end up with another caning.'
Not so. He just asked for all four names and could anyone back this up? I gave the names of my pals.
Back to lessons. Nothing. One of my pals telling me my future: 'Christ Dan, that was bloody foolish, you're are going to end up a mess.'
Next day.
All in school hall for usual morning assembly, me miming (I couldn't sing to save my life) to hymns etc. All finished, everyone ready to go off to classes, then Head comes out onto stage, he has an announcement. The 'four' pupils walk slowly on, heads bowed. A school mate from back then now tells me it was ‘five’ not 'four', he's prob right).
I literally could have peed myself as all were caned in front of the school. Ha ha. I was never troubled again.
Did someone say bring the cane back?
popeyewhite said:
Well it was to a 7 year old boy in the early seventies.
I think anyone under 13 is too young to be boarding, the sense of abandonment would be immense. Back in the 70's it would have been horrendous.
NDA said:
I think anyone under 13 is too young to be boarding, the sense of abandonment would be immense.
It could be, but don't think there's a rule there. I was about 9 the first time, I knew my dad was flying over Iraq, home was where all the other families all had dads away, two pilots on his squadron died in the run up to the Gulf War before it had even started. Everyone's circumstances are different and most people are just trying to do the best they can by their kids, not abandon them and kids can understand that.I do enjoy the dichotomy of these privileged, abandoned kids though.
60s - I didn't go to boarding school but still got brutally caned regularly for minor infringements. The married male gym teacher was dating one of the girls Dawn. She made it to Hustler magazine. The married geography teacher used to take Shirley into his book cupboard during class! When she finished school they disappeared into the sunset. I still remember all the names but maybe they're still alive!
MitchT said:
PE teachers were all aholes when I was at school. The male ones were bullies and the female ones all seemed to be man-haters who appeared to have pursued that career path purely so they could take their angst out on boys. And, of course, contact sports provided the perfect opportunity for the nasty kids to give everyone else a good kicking. PE lessons are the most significant reason that I Iove the fact that I'm no longer at school - they were an acutely miserable experience. I wasn't a lazy kid who hated exercise either - I spent most of my weekends up mountains and a lot of my weekday evenings running with a local athletics club which has consistently produced Olympic athletes over many decades.
I've always thought that PE at UK state schools (at least mine) was just badly managed by people too lazy/stupid to actually figure out how to make exercise fun. I was made to do lots of football and rugby which I just found boring, and we'd walk back past the empty sports hall which many of us would probably rather have used to do badminton, basketball or gym work. Likewise I enjoyed the running track, and would have been happy to spend time repeating laps with others to try and better our times. Likewise the school had a small swimming pool and a full set of field sports equipment (javelins, shot puts etc), yet pretty sure I only ever used them once a year if that.holes when I was at school. The male ones were bullies and the female ones all seemed to be man-haters who appeared to have pursued that career path purely so they could take their angst out on boys. And, of course, contact sports provided the perfect opportunity for the nasty kids to give everyone else a good kicking. PE lessons are the most significant reason that I Iove the fact that I'm no longer at school - they were an acutely miserable experience. I wasn't a lazy kid who hated exercise either - I spent most of my weekends up mountains and a lot of my weekday evenings running with a local athletics club which has consistently produced Olympic athletes over many decades.Gareth79 said:
I've always thought that PE at UK state schools (at least mine) was just badly managed by people too lazy/stupid to actually figure out how to make exercise fun. I was made to do lots of football and rugby which I just found boring, and we'd walk back past the empty sports hall which many of us would probably rather have used to do badminton, basketball or gym work. Likewise I enjoyed the running track, and would have been happy to spend time repeating laps with others to try and better our times. Likewise the school had a small swimming pool and a full set of field sports equipment (javelins, shot puts etc), yet pretty sure I only ever used them once a year if that.
Quite agree. I loved badminton, hated cross country (through the nettle ridden forest). Our PE teacher was ex forces (never clear if he was time served or kicked out) but his idea of PE was not to teach but to send us out on cross country while screaming at us and blowing a whistle for 45 mins while berating the slowest kids.There's a lot of weekly boarding now. With the endless sports and activities available in many private schools and excellent pastoral care, staying overnight with your friends is nothing like the austere abandonment trope trotted out by so many.
I do remember weekends being quite slow when I was 13-15. Sixth form, more fun. But this was some time ago...
We had chapel on Sundays that was compulsory and a slog until Jerusalem or something similar could be shouted by 500+ kids. We had a great chaplain who appeared to have done too much LSD in the 60's. He was allowed to go full Happy Clappy Kumbaya once a month which could have been an issue if it wasn't for a get out clause. If we attended early morning communion in the very beautiful village church we could avoid hugs and peace being with us. Once a month, early on a Sunday morning the village church was packed to the gunnels and the clergy knew they had to have a good stock of wafers and something pretending to be wine.
Happy memories.
I do remember weekends being quite slow when I was 13-15. Sixth form, more fun. But this was some time ago...
We had chapel on Sundays that was compulsory and a slog until Jerusalem or something similar could be shouted by 500+ kids. We had a great chaplain who appeared to have done too much LSD in the 60's. He was allowed to go full Happy Clappy Kumbaya once a month which could have been an issue if it wasn't for a get out clause. If we attended early morning communion in the very beautiful village church we could avoid hugs and peace being with us. Once a month, early on a Sunday morning the village church was packed to the gunnels and the clergy knew they had to have a good stock of wafers and something pretending to be wine.
Happy memories.
It wasn’t just public school. Although I know that’s what this thread is really about. Our teachers used to hit us. It was rare. But it happened. Our deputy head used to throw his huge bunch of keys at kids. With full force.
This was in the 80’s. The violence at my school was insane. State school, notorious, Tooting. 1980’s. It haunts me, some of it. Total madness.
This was in the 80’s. The violence at my school was insane. State school, notorious, Tooting. 1980’s. It haunts me, some of it. Total madness.
Went to a boarding school in the 90's and experienced plenty of fun and games from staff on power trips.
Remember once when a friend of mine set off a stink bomb somewhere (there was about 3-4 of us involved), a geography teacher decided to take it upon himself to investigate the crime. The school had a separate block for arts and D&T which he had no business going into. He took each of us in there one at a time to interigate, smacking us and the furniture about with his trainer until we said who let the thing off. This was after hours when no one else was in the building. I bet that made him feel like a big man considering we were all about 9yrs old. Several safeguarding red flags in there too.
There was another one what I think was really fked up - I think they wanted rid of me for whatever reason. We had a shooting range which was used for air pistols and rifles for an after school activity. The pistols were used in one section and the rifles the other, one of the PE teachers would hand out the guns at the end and take them back. One time we'd gone shooting as usual, I was on pistols that week, and returned to school. Think it was the day after all of the boys who'd participated that afternoon were taken up to the headmasters office and told to wait outside. Then, all of the boys apart from were taken in for a few minutes, then came out telling me that it 'looked I'd done it' (I had no idea what they were on about). Then I went in and they kept asking me what I'd done with the gun, where was it e.t.c.
So I think the way it was supposed to play out was that I'd somehow stolen an air pistol from the shooting range. This wasn't true and I protested my innocence - I think this went on for several weeks until suddenly the gun had been found and everything just went away. The thing is, looking back on it, shouldn't they have called the Police if a 9/10 year old boy supposedly had a stolen gun somewhere? I have so many more unanswered questions about, the whole situation was so weird.
Loads more st went on there, goes to show that it wasn't something that just went on in the 60's or 70's. I'm sure there's plenty of abuse that still goes on in these places too. There's too much opportunity for adults to gain access to kids in secret corners or rooms when there aren't many other people around.
Just send your kids to a day school.
Remember once when a friend of mine set off a stink bomb somewhere (there was about 3-4 of us involved), a geography teacher decided to take it upon himself to investigate the crime. The school had a separate block for arts and D&T which he had no business going into. He took each of us in there one at a time to interigate, smacking us and the furniture about with his trainer until we said who let the thing off. This was after hours when no one else was in the building. I bet that made him feel like a big man considering we were all about 9yrs old. Several safeguarding red flags in there too.
There was another one what I think was really f
ked up - I think they wanted rid of me for whatever reason. We had a shooting range which was used for air pistols and rifles for an after school activity. The pistols were used in one section and the rifles the other, one of the PE teachers would hand out the guns at the end and take them back. One time we'd gone shooting as usual, I was on pistols that week, and returned to school. Think it was the day after all of the boys who'd participated that afternoon were taken up to the headmasters office and told to wait outside. Then, all of the boys apart from were taken in for a few minutes, then came out telling me that it 'looked I'd done it' (I had no idea what they were on about). Then I went in and they kept asking me what I'd done with the gun, where was it e.t.c.So I think the way it was supposed to play out was that I'd somehow stolen an air pistol from the shooting range. This wasn't true and I protested my innocence - I think this went on for several weeks until suddenly the gun had been found and everything just went away. The thing is, looking back on it, shouldn't they have called the Police if a 9/10 year old boy supposedly had a stolen gun somewhere? I have so many more unanswered questions about, the whole situation was so weird.
Loads more s
t went on there, goes to show that it wasn't something that just went on in the 60's or 70's. I'm sure there's plenty of abuse that still goes on in these places too. There's too much opportunity for adults to gain access to kids in secret corners or rooms when there aren't many other people around.Just send your kids to a day school.
W124 said:
It wasn’t just public school. Although I know that’s what this thread is really about. Our teachers used to hit us. It was rare. But it happened. Our deputy head used to throw his huge bunch of keys at kids. With full force.
This was in the 80’s. The violence at my school was insane. State school, notorious, Tooting. 1980’s. It haunts me, some of it. Total madness.
Yes, it's not just boarding schools. or public schools. My school was a "state" school, and yes it was in a state.This was in the 80’s. The violence at my school was insane. State school, notorious, Tooting. 1980’s. It haunts me, some of it. Total madness.
Our teachers would throw the chalk. The laughed when they told the rest of us that chalk "stings" when it hits you.
But this thread can also be about parents. I don't think any poster has said this yet, but parents would hit their own children too. It was normal, even in public.
Roman Catholic primary school, run by nuns.
I have a lasting deep hatred for nuns and organised religion.
Evil, wicked and operating under the impression they are righteous so they totally lacked any self checks or balances.
Every time I read the fawning obituary in the local paper that one of them has died I inwardly cheer and hope that if hell exists they are off there.
I have a lasting deep hatred for nuns and organised religion.
Evil, wicked and operating under the impression they are righteous so they totally lacked any self checks or balances.
Every time I read the fawning obituary in the local paper that one of them has died I inwardly cheer and hope that if hell exists they are off there.
popeyewhite said:
M4cruiser said:
But this thread can also be about parents.
Not really...I mean in a round about way maybe but actually it's quite specific - Charlie Spencer claims he was abused at school.My parents weren't rich enough to employ a nanny to hit me so they did it themselves.
There was an elderly, horrible, obnoxious, pot bellied teacher at my senior private school, called the Reverend Goddard, who used to take us for RE - yes, religious education would you believe, what an utter load of Bull S that was and a monumental waste of valuable time ffs.
However, without fail Every single lesson, he would steer the conversation get talking about “ Smacking little girls bottoms “ and involve the girls in the class in the conversation ( who all sat at the front )
At the time as 12 - 15 year olds, we never really thought anything of it, as the word Pedo wasn’t widely mentioned in the early - mid 1970s, but it was only years later that I realised just how disgustingly repugnant it was.
He also used to take a yearly school trip to Weston Super Mere, have absolutely no idea why he went to WSM, but I do recall the whispers about him touching the girls up.
However, without fail Every single lesson, he would steer the conversation get talking about “ Smacking little girls bottoms “ and involve the girls in the class in the conversation ( who all sat at the front )
At the time as 12 - 15 year olds, we never really thought anything of it, as the word Pedo wasn’t widely mentioned in the early - mid 1970s, but it was only years later that I realised just how disgustingly repugnant it was.
He also used to take a yearly school trip to Weston Super Mere, have absolutely no idea why he went to WSM, but I do recall the whispers about him touching the girls up.
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