I agree with other posters but would like to add a personal experience. I was with a class of boys who were taken into the city to see the Marlon Brando version of ‘Julius Caesar’. We were not rowdy – just a little restless because Shakespeare on film was very different from our usual movie experiences i.e westerns and the Marx Bros.
It was a public screening and an old boy of the school complained about our behaviour to the headmaster. As a result, two masters caned every boy in the form. Every boy except me, that is. I hid out in the ablutions block until the unpleasantness was over.
My non-participation caused me to lose my two best friends.
Someone had a quiet word with the Head Boy who had the authority to cane. As a result I spent a number of episodes that year examining the worn tread in his study while he committed serious GBH to my shorts-clad bottom.
50 years on and I still feel resentment about the general beating but, more than anything, I regret the cowardice that caused me to lose my two best freinds.