OK, so you are now a pupil at Kings School, your name for this adventure is John Wilson, a quite common English name.
So, I am now wearing the school uniform like the boys in the picture and I will be between the ages of about 13 and 17 - let’s say I’m just 16 so probably starting my third year. The school has several boarding houses called The Walpole House (named after the famous author Hugh Walpole who was a pupil at Kings), Grange, School House and Meister Omers. I am, of course, like nearly all the boys, a boarder as my parents are well-off and want me to have a really good education.
King’s is what is called in the UK a ‘Public School’, Public Schools are anything but public. They are the top and most expensive schools costing in the days we are talking about perhaps £150 a year equivalent to £15,000 today.
Discipline in Public Schools was entirely a matter for the school prefects known at King’s and many others Public Schools as ‘Monitors’ who had the power to punish boys in a number of ways. Writing lines often in Latin, Punishment Drill, and the application of The Cane. The masters and staff of the school were responsible for teaching and well being of the boys, acting in loco parentis.
So, I am now wearing the school uniform like the boys in the picture and I will be between the ages of about 13 and 17 -
King’s is what is called in the UK a ‘Public School’, Public Schools are anything but public. They are the top and most expensive schools costing in the days we are talking about perhaps £150 a year equivalent to £15,000 today.
Discipline in Public Schools was entirely a matter for the school prefects known at King’s and many others Public Schools as ‘Monitors’ who had the power to punish boys in a number of ways. Writing lines often in Latin, Punishment Drill, and the application of The Cane. The masters and staff of the school were responsible for teaching and well being of the boys, acting in loco parentis.
One of these could be me! School Monitors wore an identical uniform except that they had striped ties and wore Purple Gowns - a privilege granted to them by King Henry VIII. Boys awarded ‘Colours’ for sporting achievement also wear striped ties.
