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St Edward’s:
150 Years
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Chapter 3 / Houses
superior and were proud of that reputation, along with Sing’s
dominating the annual Bumpers rowing races for many years.
Macnamara’s (always referred to as Mac’s), under the often
eccentric leadership of ‘Major’ Arthur Macnamara (in place as Set
Tutor and Housemaster from 1919 to 1947), was a House which
dominated many sports events, particularly cricket, especially
between the Wars, and was considered as an easy-going, rather
personable crowd. However, famous alumni of the School have
been pretty evenly spread between the Sets/Houses, as have
been those who gave their lives in the two World Wars.
Today the House match is not as important an occasion as in
the past. Sports matches against other schools, including hockey,
netball and tennis matches, have taken over and rugby is no
longer compulsory for all boys; the hotly contested Bumper
Races of old are no longer in existence and pupils do not
ordinarily play games outside their age groups. There has been
a shift towards academic competition between Houses in recent
years and the House is now seen more as a home-from-home
and a place to work rather than as a social group demanding
loyalty but often dominated by fiercely competitive mavericks.
Growing awareness that pupils are very much individuals who
will go out into the world and take completely different paths
from each other, for which the School must prepare them
well, is now the School’s approach, and although fitness and
willingness to compete are still hugely valued, other pursuits and
achievements are now equally highly regarded.
Kendall Quad was completed as a quadrangle by the creation of
a boys’ House, Kendall House (K), under the Housemastership
of Charlie Baggs, with most of the former members of Corfe
moving into it, Corfe being changed to a girls’ House in that year
with Sarah Kerr-Dineen as Housemistress.
2001 saw the first phase of Avenue House (M) when girls,
taken mostly from the Lower Sixth and Shell Forms, moved
temporarily into Corfe and also to Cooper House (the former
Sanatorium) on the main School site, while their new House
was completed, just to the north of Corfe. This was finally
opened in the Autumn Term of 2002, with a second phase in
2005. At this time a start was also made on restructuring of the
Cowell’s/Segar’s Block built in the 1930s; in September 2003
Segar’s moved to a brand-new building, parallel to its former
site, towards Oakthorpe Road. Cowell’s remained in its original
home, with expanded space, and the English Department was
moved into the ground floor of the building.
A new girls’ House, Jubilee House (N), situated in front
of Corfe House, was officially opened in 2013, complete with
two time capsules beneath its entrance, placed there at Gaudy:
one capsule for Jubilee House itself and one for the School
as a whole, filled by the History Department. The first Jubilee
Housemistress is Phaedra Gowen.
Throughout the School’s history, Sets and Houses have
gathered reputations, some real, others apocryphal. Often
these can be traced to the influence and character of the
Set and House’s leadership, with Housemasters and latterly
Housemistresses perhaps imprinting their own personalities
onto their House’s behaviour. Certainly it used to be in sports
that this was most marked. As the House system took over,
the distribution of sporting prowess was more evenly shared
between the Houses, with each having its years of glory. Field
House, formerly in its more distant location, was the winner
of most athletic events and especially long-distance running;
many attribute this to their custom of running to and from their
House to the Main School every day. Segar’s House went years
without much major sporting success, often being considered
rather too laid back, theatrical and bookish until the 1950s and
1960s, when it suddenly became highly successful in games
– this coincided with when ‘Bill’ Veitch (OSE), an outstanding
sportsman, took over as Housemaster. Cowell’s was a House
that was not necessarily top of the sporting list but did well
and was a strong rugby House – this may have been down
to continuity of Housemasters, with Freddie Yorke and then
Pat Brims in charge for nearly 40 years between them. Tilly’s
House was always a strong contender in boxing and gymnastics,
with Arthur Tilly being a man who stood no nonsense and
ensured that his was not a House to be taken lightly. Apsley
and Sing’s, both under the banner of School House, with the
Warden as titular Housemaster, were considered as rather
GLOSSARY OF TEDDIES LINGO
c.
1950
BASHER – Straw hat worn outside School grounds. Replaced in
1950s by plain blue caps with School crest.
BONFIRE – Coloured ties worn by prefects during term, and by
the entire School during holidays.
BUMMING – Beating or caning.
CHAOSING – Fighting.
CHIMNEYS – Run between the School and Five Mile Drive.
COLLEGE TART – Younger boy considered to have sex appeal.
CRIBBING – Cheekiness or silliness.
CRYSTAL PALACE – Toilets.
FACING-OFF – Junior boys were not allowed to look at
Senior boys and were therefore ordered to ‘face-off’. The
sign to instruct someone to do this consisted of passing
one’s forefinger in front of the eyes.
FAGS – Younger boys who performed menial tasks such as
cleaning shoes, passing messages and waking up prefects.
GRIP – Self Control. To lose grip meant to lose one’s temper;
a grip fight was when both combatants had completely
lost their composure. Possibly derived from Ken Menzies’
teaching style of the 1930s. Boys being questioned had to
clutch one end of a stick while he held the other end. If
Ken could pull it free, he assumed that the boy was not
paying attention. Gave rise to the phrase, ‘This boy has no
semblance of grip’.
HELL – Area in basement for storage of tuckboxes in Mac’s.
HORSEBOX – Cubicle for private study.
JOHNS & ANNIES – Domestic staff. They lived in the Johnnery
and Annery, and were not permitted to cross the Quad.
RAGGING – Silly behaviour.
REARS – Toilets. Even in the 1960s they had no doors.
SMILING – Burning (especially toast).
STODGER – Cross between a doughnut and a danish pastry
purchased from the Shop.
SURL – Bad mood.
‘….a member of my House used to keep a
motorbike at School which was broken down
into bits and distributed amongst friends to be
occasionally collected together so that it could be
ridden by the owner at the weekend. I used to keep
a sprocket in my horse-box, all a bit reminiscent of
Allied prisoners in German concentration camps
duringWWII.’
Grenville Collins (A, 1956–9)
‘I learned a fuller life. Despite, perhaps because of,
fagging, the occasional caning and, retrospectively,
an overdose of Anglo-Catholicism, I was prepared
by the pleasures and pains of Rugby and cricket,
runs to the Trout, Sgt Merry and the JTC, for
university, the Army, a new life in the USA, and a
happy and productive private and professional life.
At the age of 68 I completed the Boston Marathon
in 5 hours, 15 minutes.’
Michael Wolff (G, 1940–5)
‘…the bike ride I made with about half a dozen
others (I cannot remember who they were, but
almost certainly Apsley) down to Iffley Road
to watch the first ever sub four-minute mile by
Roger
Bannister.Wehad read in the paper that
morning that there was a possibility that the
attempt might be made. I think it was an Oxford
University v AAA meeting.
The track was archaic compared to the present
facilities, and the event was very thinly attended…
I would guess only two or three hundred! You can
well imagine that we were pretty pleased with
ourselves when we got back to School.
I still have the programme somewhere in my
attic with the times neatly inscribed!’
Tony Alexander (E, 1952–6)
‘1945 was a watershed in my life, as in so many
others. In January I was genuinely surprised
to be awarded a history scholarship at Trinity,
Oxford. In my last term I was president of my
House senior dayroom – the giddiest height I
reached so far as school appointments were
concerned. More rewarding was the editorship of
the School
Chronicle
. I contributed a staggeringly
sanctimonious leader about the post-war world,
with distinctly “red” sentiments which even now
make me blush. However, its purple passages did
earn me a “posthumous” literary prize. By the time
it appeared I had joined up, on 1 May. Exactly one
week later the Germans surrendered and the post-
war world was upon us.’
Ivor Lucas (F, 1941–5)