The School Cap

 

Does anyone know when the School Cap ceased to be worn? Was it worn from the earliest days of the school?

Some boys, who perhaps inherited theirs, had classier-looking caps than the type my mother bought for me when I joined the school. That type was possibly a "Utility" version originating during the war years. I hated caps in general but found the Peter Symonds cap of the time with its garish alternate segments of bright yellow and blue, particularly loathsome (the yellow, incidentally, turned greenish when rained upon for the first time). My mother loved it though despite the fact that the combination of garish cap and short-back-and sides haircut made my sticky-out ears even more prominent.

In summer, especially around Founders Day, the better-off sported straw boaters, do you remember that? I never manage to aspire to that but later on I did get a new cap (was my head swelling due to increased knowledge I wonder?) and the design of this cap reverted to the earlier one I had seen on some of the prefects when I joined the school. The "new" cap was of superior quality and much more expensive to boot. Good business for that little shop in the High Street which today would be at risk of being reported to the monopolies commission. Regrettably the first day I wore it, probably some time in 1952, an older boy enquired whether it had a "Whee" in it, took it from my head and threw it through the air, gleefully shouting "wheeeeee". It fell in a puddle.

The School Cap

 

Does anyone know when the School Cap ceased to be worn? Was it worn from the earliest days of the school?

Some boys, who perhaps inherited theirs, had classier-looking caps than the type my mother bought for me when I joined the school. That type was possibly a "Utility" version originating during the war years. I hated caps in general but found the Peter Symonds cap of the time with its garish alternate segments of bright yellow and blue, particularly loathsome (the yellow, incidentally, turned greenish when rained upon for the first time). My mother loved it though despite the fact that the combination of garish cap and short-back-and sides haircut made my sticky-out ears even more prominent.

In summer, especially around Founders Day, the better-off sported straw boaters, do you remember that? I never manage to aspire to that but later on I did get a new cap (was my head swelling due to increased knowledge I wonder?) and the design of this cap reverted to the earlier one I had seen on some of the prefects when I joined the school. The "new" cap was of superior quality and much more expensive to boot. Good business for that little shop in the High Street which today would be at risk of being reported to the monopolies commission. Regrettably the first day I wore it, probably some time in 1952, an older boy enquired whether it had a "Whee" in it, took it from my head and threw it through the air, gleefully shouting "wheeeeee". It fell in a puddle.

Class of '71 reunion 14th June 2003

35 of us got together and still managed to recognise each other after 32 years . The evidence is being loaded into a new album on this site . Please see if you can spot any of us in the photos !!

 

Keith

Class of '71 reunion 14th June 2003

35 of us got together and still managed to recognise each other after 32 years . The evidence is being loaded into a new album on this site . Please see if you can spot any of us in the photos !!

 

Keith

Re: A child's book

Anybody who survived flying the 'electric kite' would be the right stuff to face the Luftwaffe!
============================================================
From: "jim wishart"
Date: 2003/05/15 Thu PM 07:21:38 GMT
To: "peter symonds, winchester, unofficial nostalgia corner"
Subject: Re: A child's book

-----------------------------------------------------------

New Message on peter symonds, winchester, unofficial nostalgia corner

-----------------------------------------------------------
From: jim wishart
Message 3 in Discussion

I have now had a chance to browse the BOP annual and it has been really enjoyable. The articles are so evocative of the age, the twenties. Here are a couple of instances.
There was a 'Hobbies' page. November 1922 had a design for a pump for a model steamer. It started-
"Those boys who possess a model steam-boat, or who contemplate making one, will be a trifle bothered about the business of a pump, no doubt. It is a well-built model steamer that does not leak at the propellor shaft, and no matter how well built, if the weather is rough, the boat is bound to take a quantity of water aboard.....
....to the boy who knows how an oscillating cylinder works, the picture will explain itself. To others, a little explanation is needed....
[Well, even after sixty years, the picture doesn't explain itself and the further explanation is quite dense! I suppose what I am saying is that maybe we expected more of our teenagers in the twenties?] Another item in the same hobbies section included an article on 'Making an electric kite'.
It starts- "Would you like to possess an 'electric kite, or in other words, make yourself a kite capable of flying to a considerable height and drawing down to the earth the free electricity from the atmosphere in visible form, so that it can be seen flashing and sparkling like a miniature lightning storm? It is very readily done, and forms a most amusing and instructive thing..."
It goes on in several paragraphs to describe the venture and then finally, maybe after the editor has seen the contribution at a late stage says
"Simple and easy as this sounds, you must be careful in flying such a kite-- particularly in thundery weather. At all times, the string ought to be passed over an iron or metal railing after leaving the hand, and it should never knowingly be flown when thunder is near"
Times change don't they?

jim


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Re: A child's book

Anybody who survived flying the 'electric kite' would be the right stuff to face the Luftwaffe!
============================================================
From: "jim wishart"
Date: 2003/05/15 Thu PM 07:21:38 GMT
To: "peter symonds, winchester, unofficial nostalgia corner"
Subject: Re: A child's book

-----------------------------------------------------------

New Message on peter symonds, winchester, unofficial nostalgia corner

-----------------------------------------------------------
From: jim wishart
Message 3 in Discussion

I have now had a chance to browse the BOP annual and it has been really enjoyable. The articles are so evocative of the age, the twenties. Here are a couple of instances.
There was a 'Hobbies' page. November 1922 had a design for a pump for a model steamer. It started-
"Those boys who possess a model steam-boat, or who contemplate making one, will be a trifle bothered about the business of a pump, no doubt. It is a well-built model steamer that does not leak at the propellor shaft, and no matter how well built, if the weather is rough, the boat is bound to take a quantity of water aboard.....
....to the boy who knows how an oscillating cylinder works, the picture will explain itself. To others, a little explanation is needed....
[Well, even after sixty years, the picture doesn't explain itself and the further explanation is quite dense! I suppose what I am saying is that maybe we expected more of our teenagers in the twenties?] Another item in the same hobbies section included an article on 'Making an electric kite'.
It starts- "Would you like to possess an 'electric kite, or in other words, make yourself a kite capable of flying to a considerable height and drawing down to the earth the free electricity from the atmosphere in visible form, so that it can be seen flashing and sparkling like a miniature lightning storm? It is very readily done, and forms a most amusing and instructive thing..."
It goes on in several paragraphs to describe the venture and then finally, maybe after the editor has seen the contribution at a late stage says
"Simple and easy as this sounds, you must be careful in flying such a kite-- particularly in thundery weather. At all times, the string ought to be passed over an iron or metal railing after leaving the hand, and it should never knowingly be flown when thunder is near"
Times change don't they?

jim


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A child's book

Hello,
This isn't a Peter Pips story but it is pure nostalgia so maybe it's allowable?

In 1943 when I was seven, my brother Peter and I were packed off to our aunt at Overton in north Hampshire for a month or two. I think our mother had to have an operation. Our uncle was a gamekeeper for Portals the banknote paper people and we had a great time helping the beaters on pheasant shoots, picking bluebells and generally running riot. Uncle had a copy of a Boy's Own Paper Annual that he may have had as a present as a boy. We pored over it with delight spending much time studying the pictures and reading the stories. When we left they gave us the book and we treasured it. Then, some years later, the book went missing and since then I have been looking for it. With the advent of the internet I thought that I might have a good chance of tracking it down. I contacted many booksellers without success. Then, feeling fully recovered after an op. last August, I decided to try to find the book in the British Library and yesterday Anne and I took the train to Euston and walked the short distance to the Library. It's an impressive place isn't? After having some trouble with the very clunky computer system we ordered a bunch of the volumes and sat back and waited at our desk. Oh joy, the fifth one, volume 45 of 1923, was the one I was looking for. I recognised every picture and I found the hairs on my neck tingling! When we got home to Northampton I checked on the internet and found a bookseller in Cromer who had a copy for £16. So now I wait with happy anticipation for the postman's knock on the door.

 

jim