OS MEMORIES : THE 1960s towel , wash bag and laundry bag etc must be hung exactly as directed and the dressing gown cords tied around them all to form a neat assembly . Clothes , all fastidiously name-labelled by the departed mummy , are put into a cupboard in Matron ’ s room . We find out later that Matron has no medical training whatsoever but is able to apply a sticking plaster and administer a spoonful of cough medicine .
DAY ONE AS A BOARDER
Nowadays , due to the tireless efforts of staff and decades of educational progress , boarding houses are warm and welcoming , with snacks after school , comfortable beds and even some en-suite rooms . Sixty years ago they were very different places , occasionally remembered with horror , but here Old Johnsonian Adam Gilbert recalls the Spartan days of the 1960s with impressively affectionate humour .
September 1965 . Harold Wilson is prime minister of a Labour government . The Beatles are in their pomp and the first buds of flower power are emerging on both sides of the Atlantic … but not in Oak Lane , Sevenoaks , where the Victorian pile that is Johnsons waits to welcome a host of 20 new boys to a new life . Once the trunks are unloaded from mummy ’ s car , which sadly soon disappears down the drive , the boys are distributed into two dormitories for unpacking .
These rooms have no carpets or curtains , just a row of iron-framed beds . Here the first of many ‘ house rules ’ are discovered . This is a time to sink or swim . Rules must be assimilated immediately . Three pegs behind each bed are for specific items . Pyjamas ,
We are shown round the house . We see the junior common room ( JCR ) divided from the senior common room ( SCR ), where the gods lived , by a folding screen decorated with pupils ’ honours … surely we will never be on there ? The changing room , redolent with last year ’ s sweaty bodies , disports the only house luxury , a venerable record player . Off the changing room was the only method of washing after games , there being not one shower in a house of 60 + boys . This room had a row of three baths sitting on a lead floor . We soon found that the senior boys had first knockings whilst the rest immersed themselves in order of seniority . Guess who was last into the brown water after rugby ?
After the tour it ’ s downstairs to the JCR for our first evening assembly . The head of house , a minor deity , surrounded by his acolytes , the rest of the senior common room , ensures everyone is standing straightbacked and , while the Second Years smirk now they are no longer the principal target of his discipline , the roll call commences . We quickly find we are not to answer ‘ yes ’ or ‘ here ’, but ‘ sir ’.
The roll call soon establishes that nobody has escaped on day one and then the assistant housemaster , a fresh-faced graduate in his first job , and the major deity , the housemaster ‘ Killer ’ Green , make their appearance . The former smiling benignly and the latter with a grin on his face and his hands rubbing together in anticipation of the new term and the thought of welding the new intake into the most important part of Johnsons life : the house rugby teams .
And that was day one ! The three faces above , Mike Hirst , Adam Gilbert and Ian Topp met in D Dorm that evening and survive as friends to this day , nearly 60 years later .
Adam Gilbert ( OS 1970 )
130 OLD SENNOCKIANS