Jane and I looked at each other and then the boy hurried past us still trying, rather unsuccessfully, to stuff his shirt tails into his trousers. We two girls knew exactly what was going on and hurried down the stairs towards the quadrangle. We had encountered the first of many strange traditions of what was still, basically, an all boys grammar school.

Sitting on one of the two benches where we could look up and see the door to our common room, Jane and I quickly established that we had both worn grey trousers rather than skirts and what might be called ‘appropriate’ underwear because we had been previously warned about the aforementioned tradition – that of debagging new entrants to the school!

For the uninitiated (no pun intended!) this is the weird practice adopted by many boys’ establishments of several boys grabbing one boy and depositing him on the floor or on a desk or table and pulling down his trousers, and often his underpants as well. This was sometimes, but by no means always, followed by groping or pouring water on his genitals or other unpleasant follow-ons. It was done as an initiation ceremony or where a boy had offended against his form mates or sometimes just for fun.

After several minutes, Jane and I looked up and saw another boy emerge from our common room, also struggling to adjust his clothing. We speculated on whether the prefect had stopped us from going to our common room to spare our blushes at seeing boys with their trousers down, or whether it was to spare the boys from having their privates observed by girls.

We also wondered whether we were to be subjected to the same ritual, although it looked unlikely after being excluded from the common room. The next thought was, especially since we had dressed with this ceremony in mind, whether we should offer ourselves up for it to be done to us. In the end, we chickened out and went instead to the first of our afternoon lessons.