St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 3 / Houses

Left: Sing’s Housemasters from 1924 to 1965 (lefttoright):PhilipWhitrow,GeorgeMallaby, Eric Read, Leslie Styler, Stanley Tackley. Below left: Sing’s Housemasters from 1965to2013.Backrow:VaughanAbigail, David Corran, Matt Parker. Front row: JohnDonald,FranPritchard,TomJames. Below right: Ties for boys’ Houses, 2013. Bottom:Boysrecuperatingfroma flu epidemic, March 1933.

at that time himself living in the original Victorian structure that is part of today’s Corfe House, brought his existing Set C into this same building and adopted the name ‘Field House’ when he did so. Within the School’s main grounds, Arthur Tilly gave his name to a new House, with his Set F moving into the Main Buildings as Tilly’s House, with dormitories on the first floor, whilst Set A was established on the floor above (i.e. above today’s Dining Hall): this became Cowell’s House, with Freddie Yorke named as the new Housemaster. He was of course in succession to the previous long-term incumbent who, as Desmond Hill wrote, was ‘persuaded with extraordinary tact’ to give up his post after a 32- year tenure but to allow the new House to be named after him. The southern block of the Quad, including what was originally called the ‘New Buildings’ (today’s Mac’s), together with the later addition (opened in 1925) of the ‘War Memorial Buildings’ (today’s Tilly’s), now took in three separate Houses: a new venture – Menzies’ House (G) with the Revd Kenneth Menzies as Housemaster, Sing’s House (the old Set B) named after its original long-serving Tutor, subsequently Warden, but now with Philip Whitrow in charge, and Macnamara’s House (formerly Set D) run by Arthur Macnamara, whose name was given to it. All of this may be a little confusing for the present- day reader, in that by the end of 1925 six of the Houses that

we know today were already in existence under their present names, but none of them was yet in the premises that are familiar to us, except Macnamara’s, though it did not have exclusive use of its building. The following pages will record the various moves and additions that still had to be made to give us today’s geography of the Houses. For every boy within the House, the Housemaster was the key figure in authority during his school days. Several of these individuals became legendary, such as Freddie Yorke at Cowell’s 1925–49, who was described by Desmond Hill as running ‘one of the best Houses in any school at any time’, and Arthur Macnamara, who is fondly remembered as eccentric and old fashioned. Housemasters were usually bachelors, a situation which changed gradually from around the 1950s. The House arrangement proved popular and enabled the School to grow more easily with fewer changes in leadership

than before and a greater air of stability and permanence. It also allowed Kendall to disseminate authority both to the Housemasters and the House Prefects. Each House had a Head of House who would also be a School Prefect assisted by six to eight House Prefects. These individuals were empowered to keep day-to-day discipline with the ability to administer corporal punishment for certain offences or ‘lines’ for others. Caning always had to have the Housemaster’s permission beforehand. Each House had its own senior and junior dayrooms with the prefects sharing a study, and was now able to be, administratively, a separate entity. House Nurses came later and then normally covered the needs of two Houses. The Housemasters tended to be long serving: Macnamara 28 years, Tilly 27 years, Segar 25 years, Yorke 24 years. The chief exception was Menzies’ House, where the Revd Kenneth Menzies seems to have had a major falling out with the Warden after ten years as Housemaster and was promptly replaced by Gerry Segar in 1935; the House took the name of Segar’s from this time, and the name Menzies House simply disappeared. This was not, however, used as a precedent for future changes of name on change of Housemaster. House matches were very keenly contested and winning was expected by each Head of House. House cups were competed

Above left: Arthur Macnamara in 1915. Above right: Macnamara’s PT squad in 1927.

for in every sport, House singing contests and plays were expected to be of very high quality, and the dreaded Athletics ‘Standards’ every Easter Term were perhaps the greatest test of what was generally referred to as ‘House spirit’, and indeed of fitness, as every member of each House was involved. Under Kendall’s leadership the School’s premises grew at a remarkable pace, with the number of pupils increasing rapidly, ‘Going to the Brecon Beacons and living in old Nissen huts was something of an adventure.We did night exercises which were particularly exciting. On one of these events I led a group of boys up a mountain side to capture the enemy post.We caught them by complete surprise.The next day we realised why.The side we climbed was steep and treacherous. In the dark we could only see a few feet in front of us and it did not seem difficult.We would not even have dreamed of doing it if we had seen it in daylight!’ – Christopher Hand (C, 1960–5)

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