Sir James Darling, Headmaster: “After receiving gifts from the school and thanking them with his usual wit and power, the headmaster, with a touch of humour, to everyone’s delight, broke his cane and threw down his mortar board.”

“Brian Jones thought that, because it was small, well-ordered and happy, the school of the 1920s was in certain ways ‘outstandingly civilised’. The house and the isolation welded it together. The boys were a nice lot who treated each other well; there was no brutal caning or dreadful bullying. He believed that nobody questioned the numerous rules, automatic punishments, beating and detentions.”