The End of a Tenure:
But in the midst of all this change, some
things have stayed the same. The beer chiller
outside Munnery Double still exists, the curious
double corridor next to XVs and VIs Doubles
is still there, and the spacious and well-kept
garden is fundamentally as it has always been.
Sadly, for some, two illicit drinking spots
have been busted. ‘We were doing some
moving and shifting, and found a hoard of
empty bottles in the roof spaces. We collected
four bin bags of bottles and cans — and some
were pre-barcode which means before 1974.
We listed them all, published it to the boys,
and then recycled them.’ The other spot was
under a shaded lead covered ledge at the edges
of the roof. The boys used to keep their bottles
hidden and cool there in the summer. ‘I could
see it from our kitchen and so went up there,
removed the bottles, and that was that. It was
never used again,’ says David.
It seems that the secret of David’s popularity
was a clever blend of teenage discipline
interspersed with adult conversation. ‘Having
a conversation is one of my styles; being
irritatingly reasonable. You don’t want to
As one boy put it to him,
the house-dining system
makes for a ‘band of
brothers, rather than
a bunch of individuals.’
d av i d y e o m a n s
destroy a relationship by losing your temper —
you want to make the boys understand that they
are at risk of destroying the relationship we have
through their own unreasonable behaviour.’
That said, there is an element of “Boys Own”
about Housemaster Yeomans. ‘The new eco
efficient automatic lighting is a blessing and a
curse. I used to be able to walk silently around this
house in the dark. I know where all the squeaky
floorboards are. But now with the automatic
lights they know I am coming,’ says David. He
developed a technique for not triggering the
automatic lights using what he calls his “silent
sticks” which he made himself in Mill — sort
of lolly-sticks in effect. ‘When there was a noisy
gallery all I had to do was open the door, put the
lolly-stick there to keep it open for five minutes,
and they would be immediately quiet. They
would know I was there, the automatic light
would come on outside, and that was all it needed.’
We turn to the character of the House, and
what makes Phil’s special in his mind. ‘It starts
with the house-dining system that all houses
have here at the College,’ he says. ‘That is
incredibly special — it creates an environment
where boys belong. As one boy put it to him,
The Wykeham Journal 2019 45