A little while ago I wrote about the Caning Crusader Eric Wildman, who went to lecture in a public school, and got flogged by the boys, with the Headmaster’s approval. (Apparently, everybody but me knew this story already, but hey, it was news to me.)
Anyway, I’d never heard of the Horsley Hall school, and, being a keen researcher of the history of British public school education, I wanted to find out more about it. There weren’t any surface references on the Web; I figured that the school didn’t exist any more – and, having dug a little deeper, there’s really no wonder it’s no longer with us.
According to an article in the Time magazine from 18 April, 1949, Horsley Hall was a small, but progressive educational establishment. For one thing, it was co-ed (in the 40s!). Secondly, its Headmaster Robert Copping rather loudly disapproved of corporal punishment, being rather far ahead of the times in this regard. That is all very well, but it ended in tears when a former maintenance worker took the school to court:
“There is nothing,” declared the prosecuting attorney, “to prevent boys and girls at any hour from visiting each other in their bedrooms, and it is done.” The court was told by the prosecutor that once, when one teen-aged boy dared another to seduce the school’s middle-aged housekeeper, Assistant Headmaster Edward Reynolds had cracked, “I’ll bet you a pound to a penny that you don’t.” Another witness said that the children were forever talking about sex in “short Anglo-Saxon words.”
This didn’t sit well with the Great British judiciary, and the school was closed, with all 24 of its pupils “removed to the place of safety”.
According to the article, Headmaster Copping had promised to appeal, but I don’t feel too inspired to find out whether he ever had.
Haron – you’re not alone, I didn’t know the story aobut Eric Wildman and thoroughly enjoyed hearing it from you