He would read us something like ‘The Lives of the Saints’ and then something humorous, usually Wodehouse. He was also in charge of maintaining law and order at night and would walk around the house for about half an hour after ‘lights out’ until he was sure all the boys were asleep.

BM remembers that *he could lose his temper and he could hand out the strap indiscriminately, so if you though of mucking about in the boarding house after lights were out with C, you knew that if you were caught you were going to get slammed.’

‘To younger boys Father C had wrinkles and silvery-coloured hair, and was a very stern looking man. We knew that he had a big strap; he didn’t use it much, but when he did, it hurt.’