5. Punishments
Bob Lawton says in his memories – covering the years 1942-1957 – that “never once in my years at Hatch did I witness, or hear of, physical violence being used as a punishment”. Mr. King has recalled Miss Leila’s maxim, “Thou shalt not touch”. I can only say this does not tally with my own memories, though I agree with Bob that corporal punishment was much commoner at Ashford Grammar School, where several masters got an evident kick out of making us suffer. All the same, I have already mentioned having my bottom smacked by both Mr. Clover and Mr. King, plus numerous slaps from Miss Murdin. Mr. Draper was ready enough with a “clip round the earhole” and Mr. Griffiths was Mr. Griffiths. Mr. Marshall (in the senior study) would slap our hands or wrists and once washed my mouth out. The latter was standard treatment in the Nursery. Moreover, Miss Leila herself once told me I needed a “good hiding” and even suggested she might give me one. Miss Travers and Miss Ruhl loyally assured me that Miss Leila could spank hard with the slipper. Given her challenged mobility, I cannot help feeling that Miss Leila’s whacking days were long past when I knew her. In short, while Caldecott, except perhaps in the Nursery, was not the reign of terror we read about in Victorian novels set in boarding schools, physical punishment was used.
The ultimate punishment, at least for the boys, remained the penalty run. Lower down the scale, the traditional “hundred lines” (or however many) was common enough. I do not think Miss Murdin was alone in applying financial penalties and I have described “standing up” at meals. Bad behaviour in the dormitory might be punished by having the offender sit outside in the corridor for a certain time. Mr. Christie once had me sit in the Office as a punishment for something. I found it rather interesting to see Miss Aisleworth bustling around, opening drawers, taking out files and so on. The top rooms of the East Wing were sometimes used as a sort of punishment cell. Miss Murdin once yelled at one of us “You’ll go to Miss E if you do that”, in tones that suggested it was a fate worse than death. Only by reading Miss Elizabeth’s book did I learn that Miss E was used as a last resort since her gentle, understanding manner could sometimes get through to the hardest cases. “Staying in” while others played in the woods or did games was another common punishment. Once it became evident that I would have preferred an afternoon in the dormitory to an afternoon playing football and might even misbehave deliberately to obtain this, other forms of punishment were generally applied.
Though castigation of bad behaviour is an obvious short-term solution, there was at least some realization that rewarding good behaviour might ultimately achieve more permanent results. Mrs. Vinson’s strawberry teas, described earlier, are a case in point. The system of “Privileged Uniforms” and “Permanently Privileged Uniforms” seems designed with this in mind and I can well believe that Miss Leila put incentives and encouragement before negation and discomfort, even if these principles were not always carried out on the ground.