Arthur Dudley kindly sent in the following, a shorter version of which will eventually appear under his 1941 Class Notes.
.
.King Edwards School, Witley, 1938–41 by Arthur C Dudley (no 283)
.
I was 11 years old when I entered KESW in September 1938 and I remember the sad farewell with my mother at Waterloo station when all we new boys got on the train for some place called Witley in Surrey. Like most of the new boys I was very homesick for some time, but to ease our transition from home to school life, for the first term the Headmaster's wife used to have all the new boys to tea in the headmaster's flat on Sunday afternoons where we all sat on the floor while she read us bible stories. She also took us for a walk every Sunday, out through the gates and usually down through the woods to a local lake called Sweetwater. I have been there many times since and my mind always goes back to those first days at KES.
We wore naval uniform at school although there was no overt connection with the navy. Naval tradition was also followed in that senior boys slept in hammocks and “lights out” was sounded with the Last Post bugle call and we were awoken in the morning with Reveille. Discipline was strong but fair. There were about 300 boys in the school altogether and the headmaster was a clergyman, the Rev. A.C.B. Bellerby MA
As junior boys we slept in dormitories of about 25 boys in the charge of a housemistress - Mrs.Christie. At bedtime we wore nightshirts with our school number printed on the front, and, after being supervised whilst cleaning our teeth, we all had to kneel down at the foot of our beds for prayers. Then it was lights out and no talking - or that was the idea, for after a time someone would start talking and it was a great treat when someone told a long story say, of something exciting which happened to him perhaps on holiday.
In the morning it was up, wash, and down for church parade before breakfast at about 8.15am.
School meals were I suppose wholesome, but you got only what you were given - which wasn't much. There were no "afters". However, if you had money in your "bank" you could see your housemaster and draw out a small coupon to spend at the school tuck shop, which was open for an hour or two on some days. When I was hungry I used to hang about sometimes outside the dining hall just waiting for teatime! During the war some boys used to help out in the school kitchens and if it was you, then you made sure you had something extra on your plate (and your friend's plate) for tea. I remember that Marmite was contraband and if someone had a secret pot sent in by his mum he would "smuggle" it into the dining hall and pass it along under the long dining table to his friends (only his friends) but you had to watch out that you weren’t caught.
The normal punishment for, say, talking in class was 30 minutes detention, which constituted 3 "Log Marks". That meant that when lessons finished for the day you had to assemble in the main recreation hall and run round 6 big columns for 30 mins along with all the others who had detention. You could drop out when your time was up and report to the disciplinary officer who supervised the whole business. Every 10 mins. of detention counted as one Log Mark and at the end of each month there was a Log Mark parade for the whole school. Anyone who got, say, more than 15 log marks would at first get a warning. If you got the same or more the following month then it was "Mr Bennett’s office for you" where you got the cane - perhaps 3 strokes on your bottom with your shirt pulled out from your trousers. The log mark parade was a very formal affair and it was not difficult to knock up 15 log marks in a month. I got a few warnings but just managed to miss a caning. I did however get the "slipper" once, which was similar to caning but carried out with the sole of an old slipper. This was a sort of unofficial punishment, which didn't attract Log marks.
I do remember also we had to write lines sometimes as a punishment.
If a boy was caught smoking or stealing this attracted a public caning in front of the whole school. Again this was a very formal affair. The school would assemble in the main hall (“Big School” as it was called then) with the masters in their gowns up on the stage sitting facing the school. The headmaster would read out the offence and the offending boy would bend over some small steps and place his head between the School Captain's legs who clamped him tight, and he would then receive say 15 strokes. It was not a pleasant experience to watch and if the same boy repeated the offence he would quite likely have been expelled.
Of course, there were always the "regulars" who got the cane most months for having too many log marks - real toughies usually - and at bed time they would sometimes walk around the dormitory holding their night shirts up to show everyone the big blue wheals on their bottoms.
Most evenings (except week ends) we had "Prep" for two hours. This was I suppose, like home work where the whole school would assemble in the main hall to work.
Weekends were “free” except that on Saturday afternoons it would be games, either football, or cricket in the summer. Several lists of teams would be put up on a notice board and you had to look and see if your name was on one of them. With many lists and a crowd of boys looking it was easy to miss your name and then you were for it if you didn't turn up. An hour’s detention (6 log marks!) was the usual punishment for missing games, and, as you were usually down to play you scrutinized the lists most carefully to be absolutely sure if you couldn't see your name.
On Sundays church attendance was compulsory of course. Communion service at about 8am (if you had been confirmed.) Then Matins at 11am and Evensong at 6.30pm. The services were the traditional C of E type and as I had a good singing voice I was in the chapel choir right from the start. Soon after joining the school, Mr Nield the organist and choirmaster (and English master) gave all the new boys a singing test and I remember I got 9 out of 10 for singing!
When my voice broke I left the choir and became a Chapel Boy. This meant I had special duties like showing any occasional visitors to their seats and supplying them with Hymnbooks etc - a sort of junior churchwarden I suppose.
On Sundays also there was a compulsory school walk/march in the afternoon usually through the woods somewhere. We would march out of the front gate and then break ranks as we entered the woods. This was the only way you got outside the school gates in a term unless you were a “non-scorer”! That is to say you had managed to get through a whole month without a log mark and THEN for the following month you were allowed out on Sunday afternoons by yourself for about two & a half hours. Sadly, I never achieved that distinction during the whole of my time at school! However, I was very lucky in another respect because, if your parent visited you on a Sunday you were allowed out with them for the afternoon, and after I had been at KESW for about 2 years my mother wrote to say that she and my sister had got a war job at a place called Godalming near Witley. She was so thrilled to find it was only a short bus ride to the school from Godalming and so from then onwards she and my sister visited me most Sundays and took me out to tea at the local pub before returning to the school in time for the evening service which they attended also.
I was a senior boy then and in a senior dormitory where we all slept in hammocks. These are very comfortable to sleep in - once you know how to make the bedding properly and how to adjust your hammock for sleeping, as distinct from its stowed position.
There was continuing competition between senior dormitories as to which one held the Trophy for the best kept “dorm”, and the principal criterion for this honour was THE FLOOR which was made of wooden boards which were polished each morning until you could see your reflection in them. Consequently, you NEVER wore shoes in the dormitory - always your socks or bare feet. First thing every morning, three boys would be detailed to polish the floor with RONUK floor polish out of a tin. All hammocks were stowed and the three "lucky boys" would kneel on the floor in a row with polishing rags in one hand and pads on their knees and then along they would go - left/right /left/right etc in phase with each other right along the length of the dorm, then back again and so on until the whole floor was polished - it was an arduous task!!!
In 1941 the school was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war work - Radar research - and half the boys had to leave prematurely as the alternative school accommodation at nearby Hambledon was much smaller. I was amongst the leavers and of course we were all thrilled to be going out into the big wide world at last. It was like being released from prison we thought at the time!!
Those leaving were all equipped with two pairs of everything - suits, shoes - everything, plus a new suitcase to put the spare clothes in. I remember wearing my first trilby hat at 14yrs or so. Boy did we feel great on our last morning, all grown up so suddenly!
Dare I mention that one month or so before leaving I surreptitiously made a short calendar of pencil strokes on the exterior chapel wall, which I religiously ticked off each morning before service until the great day arrived. When last I looked, those pencil marks were still there some 60 or so years later!
As a contribution to the war effort, it was the practice once a week to send some KES boys to” Coopers”, a local firm at Witley, where they made Ski sticks for the Russians and stout walking sticks for the war wounded. I was sometimes chosen for this task, and just before leaving school was offered a job there.
I subsequently worked there for a year or so until I heard that the Admiralty up at the school were advertising for Lab Assistants to work on Radar. This sounded a much more glamorous job and so I applied and was accepted. Hence, I went back to KES in 1943 and worked there until about 1952 when I was transferred to Portsmouth where I now live.
ARTHUR DUDLEY
(published 13 May 2010)
