NO.122
Obiter Dicta
CJPAmbler (D, 50-55) recalls: Following
on from Breon Rawlings’s interesting
account of austerity Winchester, I have
penned out an incident which can’t have
happened to that many people in their
Winchester days. It concerns Freddie
Goddard, who was my Housedon for three
of my five years in Kenny’s.
It was a gloomy late November morning
in 1952 and I was having breakfast seated
at one of the long rectangular tables
designated for 2-year men. Freddie
Goddard used to hand out mail at
breakfast; yes, the post came early then. I
didn’t get a letter, but instead a tap on my
shoulder and ‘See me in my study
afterwards.’ I naturally speculated on
possible misdemeanours, but duly
knocked on his study door.
Freddie had a grave look on his face, and
he invited me to sit by his desk. ‘Son,’ he
said, ‘some terrible news. Your father died
last night. Let it go boy, let it go.’
I am not sure what I did, as it was
64 years ago. But when I looked
up from floor level, he was
weeping. For me, a moment ever
frozen in time. This must surely
be a nightmare thing for a
Housedon to do. He was quite
well acquainted with my father,
who had been a Japanese POW
and had finally succumbed.
Freddie was a very decent man,
and I wish he had been my
Housedon for the full five years
of my time in Kenny’s. He retired
a year later.
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
was the first person to ring 1000 peals –
there seem to be no record as to what
people thought of his pastoral
activity! Incidentally, some of his
descendants were there and, as he
apparently had sons, I asked if any of
them went to Win Coll. They said – and I
quote – ‘No, because he was Founder’s kin
and, before his sons could go, the School
changed its policies and Founder’s kin
were no long admitted.’ I suspect that
there are some half- truths there, but
there was no interest from them in
reporting the occasion to Win Coll, even
though they live in Hampshire. An
amusing further point is that the
unveiling was accompanied by two
speeches, but the person who introduced
the speakers went on for 20 minutes
himself before they could even get
started!
Old notions reported in The Field, also
spotted by PSD:
Muttoner (1831): a blow from a cricket
ball on the knuckles, the bat at the time
being clasped by them;
Slobber (1851): to fail to grasp the cricket
ball cleanly in fielding.
P Stormonth Darling (C, 45-50) spotted
that Old Wykehamists of 100 years ago
had an official postage stamp.
DR Woolley QC (Coll, 53-57)
wrote thus to the Chairman of
Goddard Legacy Society: ‘As we
welcome the new Headmaster,
you and he may wish to reflect
that there have been in history
only two people who were
Quiristers and later Prefects of
Hall. William Stanley Goddard
was one and I was the other. As
you know, WSG went on to
become Headmaster as well.
Therefore, while I am still
around, you might think it wise
to advise Dr Hands to keep a
vigilant watch on his back!’
■
Professor DN King (Co Ro, 72-78)
reports: In the village next to ours,
Drayton, Oxfordshire, there was a
service on 22nd May related to
the unveiling of a blue plaque to
the Revd Francis Edward
Robinson, a former rector. He was
born in 1833 and went to Win
Coll 1846-49. The blue plaque
celebrates chiefly the fact that he
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