RICHARD'S STORY

Soon it will be time to start the new year’s lessons, but it is on my mind that it will soon be my twelfth birthday.  I will still have two years here, and as I have been here since I was seven, it seems a lifetime to me.  During my last two years here I will be taught a trade to help me make my way in life when I leave Stanhope, also I will be here without my brothers for some of that time because they are older than me and so will be leaving before me.  My birthday arrives and after the register has been called I am told to collect my letter from home and “Yes!” Mum has sent me a nice birthday card and a One Shilling Postal Order, and a letter in which she says that life in general life is improving slightly.  She must mean that more people are in work and that there is more money about, and maybe that my Dad is able to do some work and bring home some money, but he seems unable to walk past a pub without calling in for a pint of beer!  When we go out to play four other boys pick me up and give me twelve “bumps” and although nothing else happens that is special the day seemed to have a meaning about it - perhaps it is that I realise that in only two years’ time I will be old enough to leave school and find out about the outside world after such a long time.

The days go by very slowly at this time of year as we still cannot go outside to play.  We are talking about who will go home at Easter this year, and I don’t think Mum could afford for us to go again, after all we have not been home once since we came here.  Some of the other boys say “You never know, Knighty, perhaps you will be lucky this year”.   Eventually, the days get a little longer and a little warmer and some evenings a boxer comes in to teach us how to box, but now many of us are interesting in learning boxing because there are so many rules, and all we want to do is learn how to defend ourselves in a fight.  So due to the lack of interest the boxing coach does not come to us for very long.

There is a spell of bad weather and we have to stay inside even at the weekends, and then we do not have to go to Church on Sunday, but instead the Headmaster takes a service in the Dining Room where there is a Grand Piano and also a pulpit.  The Headmaster, as well as taking the service is the only person who can play the piano.  Of course it is not like a real church service and doesn’t last as long.  We miss the long march to church, which is at Kingsnorth.  It is a very nice church and has a peal of eight bells, each with its own different sound like a scale in music.  Some of the choirboys, and I am now in the choir, have to help in ringing the bells.

 Some new boys have come to the school and of course we ask them how things are in the outside world, and it sounds as if things have improved slightly, as there are not so many people out of work and wages have increased slightly, also something called Unemployment Benefit is being paid to people of working age who have not got a job.  I suppose my Dad would be such a person, and wonder if things are a little easier whether Mum will be able to pay the fare for us to go home at Easter this year, as we have enough marks to entitle us to go.  We all check the notice board several times a day to see if the list of those going home for Easter has been put up. At long last the list is put up and “Yes!”  my name and my brothers’ names are on the list!  This will be the first time I have been home since I came here and I am very, very pleased and excited.  We break up for the holidays and the routine is not so bad now I am looking forward to going home for a holiday.  I can’t understand why some of the other boys who are going home say they wish they weren’t.  Perhaps they have been mistreated by their parents, but they do not say, they just say “If your parents were like mine, you wouldn’t want to go home either”.  Even though we did not have much food or clothes most of the time at home, we still felt loved by our parents, although a lot of the time my father was rather miserable, and would shout if we made too much noise.  He used to say “Children should be seen and not heard”, but Mum would reply “They are only children and you should be glad you can hear them because it means there is nothing wrong with them”.

So, tomorrow is the day when we can go home for a holiday and make some new friends and see some relatives that we have not seen for a long time; we may not even know each other now, but we hope we will still be welcomed.  Perhaps we will even have a free donkey ride if Uncle Alec is with the donkeys.  It seems a long day but eventually it is our last night and it will be five years since I have been home and I am both excited and a bit nervous, probably because of what people might think and say.  It seems my friend, Steve, is not going home for the holiday.  He lives in Margate and if I am right he lived not far from where my Mum was living last. 

The time comes to go to the station and we have to get on the right train for Margate, and when we get there we have to find our way to where we live which is in the High Street.  We arrive at Margate Station and it is a long way to where we live.  I have to ask someone the way but in the end it did not take as long as I though it would to reach home.  The door opens and a short, stout lady asks us what we want, but then Mum comes downstairs and the tears and kisses and cuddles start.  We are told the lady and her husband own the house and have rented some rooms to Mum.  We are told to call the lady Auntie Annie and her husband is Uncle Bob.  We have to climb three flights of stairs to where we live, which is where our other brothers and sisters are playing. 

Most of the day is spent in talking about Stanhope and we play with our brothers and sisters, and of course we are hungry, but there is not much to eat.  I wonder where we are to sleep and if we will be hungry all the time we are here, but this is overshadowed by the joy of being home and able to do what we want and go out if we want.  We will make the best of things and be glad that our parents sent the fare for us to get home.  So it is bedtime, and another kiss and cuddle from Mum.  Our bed is very different from Stanhope, and there is no nightshirt, but we soon settle down and fall asleep.

Strange as it may seem, I sleep very well and soon it is time for breakfast, so we have a piece of bread and a cup of tea.  It is a long way to go to the recreation ground, and so we go to the beach hoping that Uncle Alec is there with the donkeys.  He is there, and he asks us to lead the donkeys and says we can have a ride ourselves later. It seems a long time before we have a turn but it is worth it because it is very enjoyable.  Then it is time to go home, and it is time for Uncle Alec to take the donkeys home as well, so we walk with them to their stable before setting out for home.  On the way Tom says something to me that makes me chase him and we start running.  Tom has two pennies with him, and he puts one in his pocket, but for some reason he puts the other one in his mouth.  We reach home and Tom runs up the stairs, he looks round to see how far behind Joe is and tries to go faster and in so doing swallows the penny!  We tell Mum and we turn him upside down and Mum smacks his back to try to get the penny to come out, but it doesn’t.  We decide to take him to the hospital and after a long time they say they will have to keep him in.  They think the penny will “take its natural course” and come out within a few days.  We go to see him each day but nothing happens.

Meanwhile, Joe and me have been talking to two sisters who live near us in the High Street, and we are allowed to go out with them, Joe with the older one, Olive, and me with the younger one, whose name is Doreen.  She is blonde and very pretty with blue eyes.  She is the same age as me and we are the same height.  We go for a walk with them after tea and they ask us if we want to go to the sunken gardens at Westgate and so we go there, but it is a very long walk and it is dusk when we get there.  We sit down on the seats and talk and then Doreen asks me if I would like to kiss her and we have our arms around one another and are just about to kiss when someone shines a torch on us and this startles us and we start to run away.  I have to follow Doreen because I don’t know the way, after a little while we are out of breath and slow down to a walk, and we are holding hands which is ever so nice, and I hope no one tells the Headmaster because I might be punished.  I don’t think he can find out because Doreen and her family don’t know where the school is, and I don’t think the Headmaster has a telephone, and anyway, we don’t have a telephone and Mum wouldn’t know the telephone number.  After that I only talk to Doreen over the garden fence!

Tom is still in hospital and the penny has not passed through him and it is getting very worrying.  Soon it will be time for Joe and me to go back to Stanhope, but we have got a lot of spots and they itch and Mum gets the Doctor who says it is German Measles and we must not go back to school until all the spots have gone.  This is not very good because we must not go out to mix with other people and of course we cannot visit Tom in hospital.  There is still no sign of the penny and Tom is looking very ill and the hospital say that if nothing happens soon Tom will have to be moved to a hospital in London, where they will be able to remove the penny from Tom’s stomach or wherever it may be. 

Eventually our spots go and we have only three days before we have to go back to school, in the meantime we still have to stay in and try to be quiet, because we have made a lot of noise staying in and have upset Dad and the landlord too.  We hope Mum will be able to send for us next year, but of course by then Joe will have left Stanhope anyway.  Tom has to go to London to a bigger hospital for an operation to get the penny out.  The hospital is called St. Thomas’s.  He has got to go there by train, and will travel in the Guard’s Van, and an ambulance will meet the train to take him to hospital, when he reaches London.

Joe and me are going back to Stanhope tomorrow and we think the other boys will want to know what has happened to Tom.  As I am in the church choir I am able to ask the vicar, Reverend Swan,  to pray for Tom.  Reverend Swan is a kind man, although he is rather old, and he mentions Tom in his prayers for the sick.   When we have been back at school for a week there is a letter from Mum to say that Tom has had his operation to remove the penny, but it had caused more trouble than the doctors thought.  The penny, being made of copper had caused gangrene and Tom has had to lose a lung and part of a rib where the penny had been rubbing.  He will have to stay in hospital for some time, and may not have to come back to Stanhope again.

Joe is due to leave Stanhope some time this year and that means I will be here without my brothers for another two years, but really we have not been much like three brothers during our time here, we haven’t played together much and have made our own friends.  One thing that can be said about the boys here is that they do not form gangs and fight, that sort of behaviour would not be allowed at all.  Tom is getting on fine and is being very well looked after, it seems he is much the same in hospital as he was at school, insomuch as he does not want to mix much, but perhaps he will do so eventually. 

Soon it will be time for the summer holiday, and we are thinking of the camping as well, Joe of course is thinking more of leaving school altogether and starting work to earn some money.  He will be able to help Mum pay the rent and perhaps she will be able to stay in the same house and not move about such a lot, and buy more and better food.  It will depend on how much work there is about when Joe leaves school, when we went home on leave things were better than when we came to Stanhope.  Some of the boys that leave here go into the armed forces rather than go home, and from what they say, some of the boys would rather steal and go to prison than go to work. 

We are following our usual summer routine of cricket matches, some of the boys have started to call the Headmaster “Slogger Sam, the Guv’nor Man”.  Wednesday nights are bath night and most of us enjoy it, some say they are not dirty and don’t need a bath, and some boys think that going in the swimming pool is quite enough to keep clean, even without soap. I am just over 12 years old now and have begun to realise that some of the boys are very unhappy and dissatisfied because they haven’t got the things here that they had at home, but as for me I have everything here apart from my parents and brothers and sisters.  Joe must be leaving soon as he has been called to the tailor’s shop to be measured for his suit, and it is usually about three weeks after the first measurement that the boy leaves.  Joe has spent most of his time at Stanhope in the Governor’s House.  Tom is getting on well now, and he has started to talk to the other children in hospital, but he has been very ill.  He will be surprised to see Joe at home when he comes out of hospital, but we don’t really know which of them will be home first, probably Joe because Tom has been moved to another hospital with another complaint and Joe had been given a leaving date of the 3rd August.  He will not be allowed to keep the Bowater Cup that he won, and we think that is wrong because he won it and we were all proud of him. 

Now Joe has only two days left at Stanhope and I have two years!  Time will pass, and if I behave myself as I have done so far I will be alright.  The day before Joe leaves we sit and talk about what Joe will do and what I want to do when I leave, whether we will marry and have children and so on, but that is all a very long way off.  The day comes for Joe to leave, and I bet he was out of bed before the bell, his bedclothes folded and put neatly on his bed.  We have breakfast but Joe must wait till after nine o’clock before he can go to the tailor’s shop to change into his suit ready to leave.  His case will be packed with a change of clothes and his new working clothes. He can collect his savings from Mr Steele before he goes with Mr Hotson to Ashford Station.  I have not seen him come into the classroom and he hasn’t said goodbye to me, but I don’t mind as long as he is on his way home safely. 

So now I am here until 1936 without my brothers, but I have my mates and I get on with anybody and can join in any games.  I am now the senior boy of the school insomuch as I have been here longer than any of the others.  I hope that Mum will write to me to tell me how Joe is getting on.  Time passes very slowly sometimes, but it is always moving nearer towards the time when I will be able to leave, the summer camp is over and the summer holiday too, I hope that I will be put into Standard 7 when we start lessons and that I might get sent to work more often.  There has been no letter from home so I don’t know how Joe and Tom are getting on.  No other boys have been released since Joe and there have been no new starters either.  The nights are drawing in and soon we will have to stay inside because of the weather. 

Lessons start again, and I have been put into Standard 7, so now I am in the highest standard and Mr Steele is my teacher.  He is the Head Teacher and is rather strict, but he is also quite understanding.  My first lesson is arithmetic and it is a type of sum I have never done before and I find it quite hard and in the afternoon we have a writing lesson which is not my favourite either.  At playtime the other boys that have moved up into Standard 7 are all saying how hard the sums were, but we will have to learn how to do them or our reports will be bad.

At last I have had a letter from Mum, Tom is home and is working on a farm, but it is a long way from home and has to walk there and back.  The wage is not very good, but it is better than nothing.  Joe has got a better paid job, to do with the building trade, he makes “breeze blocks”.  He doesn’t go home very often, and when he does he does not have much money left because his boss says his food and drink pays for the work he does with only a little cash left over. 

Time passes and very little happens that is out of the ordinary, although one day in the playground we heard one of the boys shout “It’s in the drain” and Mr Hooper was there with a long iron rod with claws on one end.  He shouted to one of the boys to open the furnace door and he opened the claws on the rod and let a live rat drop into the furnace, that was the first time I had ever seen a rat, and I never found out where it had come from.

The lessons in Standard 7 are much harder but I am trying very hard to manage them, and looking forward to Christmas as the days are very dull.  One day the barber, Mr Stapely from Beaver Road in Ashford comes up to the school instead of us going there when the Headmaster selects us for a haircut.   Eventually it is time for the Christmas holiday and we make our usual preparations by decorating with holly chains and then it is Christmas Day and as usual we play until dinner time when we go to the classrooms which have been enlarged for today and we have our usual lovely dinner of roast pork and Christmas Pudding served by the teachers.  We play all afternoon and in the evening the Headmaster brings his magic lantern down and shows us different slides and tells us all about each one, and we have a very enjoyable evening.  And so the year comes to an end.

1935

The year starts with cold weather and some snow and we have to run about to keep warm at playtime.  At bedtime we have mugs of hot cocoa and a biscuit.  The other boys lie awake laughing and joking, but I have only one thing on my mind at the moment and that is my birthday when I will be thirteen years old and have only one more year at Stanhope.  I am anxious to leave but I know I will miss my friends and the familiar routine which I have had for so long.

My birthday arrives and I do not escape having the “bumps” before going into morning class; 13 and one for luck!  We go into morning class and I have a letter arrived from Mum, a card and a small parcel!  Mr Steele calls me to go to his desk and he opens the parcel and inside is a jar marked “Strawberry Jam”, he opens the jar and a “snake” pops out that makes me jump and it frightens me because I have not seen anything like that before.  I am not allowed to keep it, but that doesn’t matter because some of the other boys would have taken it off me and then I would not see it again so it is better if the teacher keeps it even if he puts it in the waste bin. 

The weather is still cold and we have to run about in the indoor playroom to keep warm.  One evening two boxers arrive and arrange a makeshift boxing ring and demonstrate the art of boxing for us and show us how to dodge a blow from your opponent, then they invite two boys into the ring to teach them to box.  One of the boxers is the referee and makes sure of fair play.  A few weeks later the middle classroom is used for a boxing ring for any boys who wish to spar a bout, but this does not carry on for long. 

The weather improves and some boys leave but no new ones arrive and soon we are talking about Easter.  The Headmaster and teachers have compiled the school magazine and in it Mr Lawrence has pulled me to pieces and has done the same with several other boys, but he has said how good we could be, he says we have been having a bed spell but he is sure we will soon be ourselves again.  We are waiting for the list to be put on the noticeboard for the boys to go home for Easter.  Two new boys arrive but otherwise things are very dull.

When the names go on the board I am not one of them so must stop at school for the Easter holidays.  The list is also put up for the boys to have allotments to tend this year and I am not on that either, but I could help someone if needed.  The weather improves and soon it is time for the cricket season to start, but we are only playing home matches again.  One day another notice is put up to say we are to have a special visiting day on 24th May which is Empire Day, and there will be voluntary sports.  We are waiting for the boys to come back from leave so that we can ask them what is going on in the outside world as we know very little unless we have a letter from our parents, and then if the Headmaster thinks there is something in the letter that we shouldn’t see it is blacked out.  Some of the boys have been to see the families of boys that could not go home if their own families live nearby.

After the Easter holiday is over we go back to our lessons and they are even harder than before and I am not a very good scholar.  On the Sunday I am told not to go to church but to stay and look after a new boy who is not Church of England but a Roman Catholic.  I didn’t know what that meant but he seemed a nice boy and we amused ourselves by playing.  He asked if we could go into the swimming pool but I said no.  He does not say why he is at Stanhope, in fact he does not say very much at all, but we get on alright.  The other boys return from church and then it is time to go into dinner, before more playtime.  It would be nice if something would happen to break the boredom but nothing does. 

We are to play a village cricket team on Saturday and that is something to look forward to; several boys will be chosen to play and we all enjoy watching the Headmaster when he goes into bat. When the match starts the Headmaster and one of the boys open the batting, the boy puts on a few runs but he is the first one to be out.  The scoring is low and after we are all out we have a break and the other side go in to bat.  They start off very well and then Mr Bishop takes a turn at bowling.  He is a spin bowler and soon claims some wickets, even so the other team beat us and after they have gone home we are allowed into the playground for a while until it is time for our mug of milk and a biscuit and up to bed.

Another new boy arrives and we find out that he is quite “brainy” and can write very nicely but he is only here for a short time.  His parents are away and he is unable to attend his usual day school.  The days pass with very little of interest and soon it will be the summer holidays which could be very boring indeed.  I have been here for a very long time now and the routine has always been the same, apart from the farm being set fire to!  Even the camping holiday has been the same.  As the weeks pass we wonder what the next big event will be and of course it is the swimming competition.  I do not enter this as I am not a very good swimmer, in fact our house (The Reds) are not very good at swimming and it is nearly always the Brown House that wins. 

There is a visiting day on Saturday and my Mum comes to see me, it is a long way for her to walk from Ashford Station and she is glad of a rest when she arrives.  She tells me that Dad is no better, Joe is not at home much and Tom is still working on the farm which is a long way to go each day for a small wage, but it is the only work going.  Tom did think of going hod carrying, which means carrying bricks to a bricklayer as he works, but he really prefers the work on the farm.

The day of the swimming competition arrives and we have our usual very enjoyable day especially when we are allowed back into the pool after tea and we are tired when we go up to bed, and in no time at all it is morning and another day with no lessons just play.  A boy in the playground has drawn three cricket stumps on the wall and when Mr Bishop comes into the playground he takes the ball and bowls an underarm.  The boy with the bat misses and is out.  Mr Bishop shows us how to bowl a “googly” and that seems to just be able to dodge the bat all the time.  Two or three boys are shown how to hold the ball but none could bowl the same as Mr Bishop.

We have heard that our woodwork teacher and Nurse are planning to get married.  The woodwork teacher is making a writing desk, which should not take him long as he has all the machines here that he needs.  Sometimes if we do not have enough wood to use in woodwork lessons we have a lesson on tools instead.  We might have to draw a picture of a hammer for example or a saw.  In our lessons we have to use “carpenter’s glue” and it smells awful.  We are told that is made of animal hooves melted down.  It takes a long time to prepare because it has to be broken down into small pieces and put into a pot that stands inside another pot of boiling water.  Eventually the glue melts and looks like toffee.  Once two pieces of wood have been joined with the glue and left for a number of hours they will not come apart and no nails or screws are needed.  Also the corners are jointed with a joint called a dovetail.

Soon the day comes to set off for Dymchurch for our ten days’ holiday, and after breakfast we go on parade and the Headmaster says “Enjoy yourselves, but don’t let the good name of Stanhope down”, then we are checked by the officer who is coming with us and off we go on the coaches for our holiday.  This is far better than when I first came to Stanhope and we had to march to the railway station and then march again to the holiday camp.  The weather is good, but as usual we are not allowed in the sea to paddle, and sometimes we wish we were back at school where there is more to do.  One day I have a surprise because my Mum comes to see me, it is only a short visit and one of the officers stays close by, I suppose it is in case I try to run away, but that would be very foolish as my days at Stanhope are coming to an end anyway.  Mum says she will come to see me again when I am back at Stanhope and says “Be a good boy and perhaps they will let you leave before your birthday!” but I can’t see that happening.

The last day of the camping has arrived and I say goodbye to Dymchurch for the last time.  At about half past nine the coaches arrive to take us back to school.  We are all checked onto the coaches and we are soon on our way.  Most of the boys are rather quiet, although one or two start singing, but this doesn’t last very long.  Very soon we arrive back at Stanhope and the boys from the front coach are allowed off but they still have to stand ready to march and wait for the rest of us.  Some of the bigger boys have to help carry the officers’ luggage into the school.  So many of us want to use the toilets at once that there are a few arguments, but soon we are all ready for dinner and the whistle blows for us to go in.  About a third of the boys are in the dining room when the officer stops us because the first ones in have to wait and say grace.  Matron says “Tut!”, and away we go again and soon we have all had our dinner, and then we are back to the old routine.  I am counting the days, and there are a lot left!

Nothing much happens over the next few weeks, there is a sports day when all the results are recorded in a book by the Headmaster, and then the nights start to draw in and it is Autumn.  Of course we start to talk about Christmas which is only a matter of weeks away.  Some of the boys think that it is then that we should have our chance of a holiday at home rather than Easter, but those of us who have been here for a while know that it is far more fun to stop at Stanhope for Christmas.

Today is Joe’s birthday and of course I cannot send him a card because we do not have any money and I would not be allowed out to go and buy a card and stamp anyway, they do not keep anything like that in the Tuck Shop, and that is not opened very often (when it is we are allowed to buy 3d worth of sweets).  I expect Joe had a nice card from Mum, but I don’t think he would have a birthday cake or presents.  Joe does not spend much time at home and can only give Mum a few shillings now and again, I think it would be better if he could live at home all the time.

I am still finding lessons difficult, I particularly do not like writing essays, which I get back marked in red by the teacher, but I am still trying hard to do as well as I can to help me when I leave school and get a job.

It is now November and time for Guy Fawkes Night, but we are not allowed to have any fireworks or a bonfire, although some of the boys think we could have a bonfire in one of the farm fields, but obviously it is considered too dangerous for us to have one, so the day ends much like any other, but when we are having fun in the playroom after tea the bonfire is soon forgotten.  The weather is getting colder and we hope that there will be a frost so that we can make a slide in the playground, although when we did that once before the garden staff came and sprinkled sand on it to stop us using it.  The other boys are talking about Christmas but I am looking beyond that to my birthday and wondering how long after it I will be allowed to leave.  The weather turns so cold in mid-November that two fires are lit in the playroom to make it warm, but most of us are too busy playing to stand by the fireguard keeping warm, but we hope the fires will be lit every night now.

We are allowed out into the playground but it is so cold that we are not out for long before the officer blows his whistle and points to the indoor playroom, saying “It is too cold to stop outside for long”.  Some of the boys keep getting out of bed in the night to go to the window to see if it has started to snow, but we have not had any yet.   Some days pass, and the first lot of holly has been brought into the school to make holly chains for the Christmas decorations; there are not many berries on it this year.  There is a little snow but not enough to make a snowman.  Two days before Christmas the decorations have been put up and we wonder if the woodwork teacher has made a decoration for us this year; he is spending his spare time making furniture ready for when he marries Nurse.