Thoughts of an Abusive but Aparant Wartime Headmaster8

It was important that punishment was effective and with such a mix of local boys and evacuees from all backgrounds, it had to not only be fair but seen to be fair. Some of these boys had very thick trousers and afforded a great deal of protection, while others had trousers so thin in places, if they were not wearing pants when these were stretched tight when the boy bent over you could see the skin. Some boys wore pants others did not. The main reason was that most boys had been cut down from their brothers and the seat had been patched. The problem being that many mums could get thin pieces of leather and would sew these on the inside of the boy’s trousers which was very hard-wearing. Not only was it hard-wearing but even the hardest strokes with a cane would not be felt and would not even leave a slight red mark on his bottom. Six of the cane would not hurt him at all yet others who had almost thread-bare trousers would feel the full pain of the cane. This was not fair and everybody regarded it as reasonable, given these circumstances, to make the boys take it on their bare bottom. I never got any complaints about the fact that I had used the cane on the bare bottom but I did with hand caning.