Author Archives: Nina Blyton

Bad Boys Birched

Weekly Dispatch, London, 5 August 1917 Two Lads Scared by Result of Their Misdoings. Charged with stealing a lady’s handbag containing 45s. and securities worth £37.10s., at Cleethorpes, two lads, aged 13, explained at Grimsby yesterday that the theft arose out of a boyish prank. The owner of the bag was lodging with the mother […]

Caning in Public School

Daily Mail, London, 5 March 1915, p.3 Assault Charge Dismissed. The boy’s account.Great interest was displayed in a case at Lancaster yesterday, when the Rev. J.H. Shackleton Bailey, headmaster of Lancaster School, was charged with assaulting Harold James Atkinson, aged sixteen, son of Dr. Atkinson, of Smethwick, Birmingham, on February 1. The case raised the […]

Teachers’ Right to Cane

Daily Mail, London, 17 April 1914, p.6 Resolution agreed to. Click to enlarge The “right to cane” resolution came before the conference of the National Union of Teachers towards the close of its session at Lowestoft yesterday and was agreed to. The resolution, declaring that the right to administer corporal punishment was a common right […]

Equality at Eton

Daily Mail, London, 9 January 1912, p.5 Inquiries at Eton show that Lord Ossulston was there for one term some time ago. Lord Tankerville is reported to have said: “I do not want him (Lord Ossulston) to be a youngster with a title who has been kowtowed to by a sycophantic crowd of pseudo and […]

Birch for the Boys 16 September 1911

Eastern Morning News, Hull, Yorkshire, 16 September 1911 Birch for the Boys. An Evening Out with a Pony and Cart. An extraordinary story was told in the Grimsby Children’s Court yesterday, when two twelve-year-old boys, Horace Cox and Michael Brannan, were charged with stealing a cycle lamp. The lads broke into a stable and stole […]

Psychology of Punishment

he Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 13 May 1911, p.10 . Eton’s Innovation. The Birch Abolished. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Click to enlarge LONDON, April 7. In England, possibly throughout the Empire, Eton has come to be regarded as the school of schools. No institution has given more statesmen, military men, and bishops to the country. […]

Caning at Eton16 June 1910

Daily Mail, London, 16 June 1910, p.6 . To the Editor of The Daily Mail Click to enlarge Sir, — May I take exception to an article in The Daily Mail on “Caning at Eton.” It seems to me a great pity that the public should be given a false impression of the existing state of affairs at […]

Caning at Eton

Daily Mail, London, 11 June 1910, p.3 . Excessive punishment by older boys. Click to enlarge In his presidential address to the Child Study Conference at Tunbridge Wells last night, Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D., discussed disadvantages of the public schools, and in advocating regular examination by a public medical official, described the result of his […]

Caning in Public Schools

The Times, London, 8 February 1910 [Editorial opinion] . A case of no little interest to schoolmasters and parents was decided by the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE at Bedford last week. It appears that a lady residing at Bedford sent four sons to the Grammar School. On the ground that her children were delicate, especially the […]