I can remember reading those old favourites, the Jennings books and the Billy Bunter books, back in my childhood during the late 50’s and early 60’s. In one of the Jennings books, a prospective caning from the headmaster was referred to as a “swishing”, which I always thought was a very evocative term. And the Bunter stories always referred to a caning as a “whopping”. Those two terms have stayed in my memory ever since.
Can anyone remember either of those terms being used at their school? Or were there any other unusual terms that were used to refer to a caning?
I don’t have any unusual term for a caning as a whole to relay, but at my secondary school in the 1950s cane strokes were referred to by those in receipt of them as ‘beats’, for instance ‘I got three beats’ might be heard from someone who fell foul of the Prefects, or ‘The Duke gave me six beats’ from someone unfortunate enough to seriously displease the Headmaster. Three strokes of the cane was the maximum the Prefects could administer, six was the most I heard of the Headmaster administering. He caned relatively infrequently.
In P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang a boy asks lead character Alan Duckworth, who had just been caned, whether he got a Corporal or a Sergeant, presumably meaning two strokes or three. Duckworth replies Sergeant as he had been given three strokes. I don’t know if those terms were ever used by real schoolboys though, I certainly never heard them.
Non-commisioned officer ranks were is use at my high school referring to the number of stripes a boy might have. I have also heard the term cuts but thinks this mainly related to hand strapping. “He got the cuts” or “he got four cuts”, etc.
At Fettes College, being caned was referred to pretty much universally by the boys (and indeed by several of the teachers) as ‘getting cracked’. Prior to arriving there I had enquired of a former prep school friend (who had by then done a year’s service at Fettes) as to the school’s stance on corporal punishment. I recall his response, in typical public school jargon… ‘Oh yes’, he said,’you can get cracked for a lot of things. Six down from the Head Man.. it hurts, I think’.
I could work out ‘getting cracked’ fairly easily, though the significance of ‘six down’ escaped me. I suppose the thought never occurred to me that in those relatively modern times (this was 1978) caning could possibly still take place with trousers (and, apparently, with underwear) lowered… Only when I subsequently heard fourth formers discussing having received ‘four up’ did that penny finally drop.
I also got caned by prefects at Fettes in the 1960s.
It has stayed with me and has been an enduring interest for some reason, but was not that common an experience at that time
It was done over the back of two chairs in normal clothing, or in some houses in games kit.
I doubt if it was much different from other mainstream public schools in that period.
At junior school a teacher used to call the cane the whistling stick.She often ” whistled ” the stick in front of us but hardly ever acually ever used it.
My deputy head once threatened me with ” Two cuts of the shtick” He had a slight speech impediment
At my school there was no singular term for a caning where the headmaster himself would refer to it as a ‘good thrashing’ as in what ‘you need my boy is a good hard thrashing’
Some masters would just refer to it as ‘a caning’ while others ‘a beating’ and the boys would describe it as any of those three with a few individual terms such as ‘a striping’ or a even ‘the high jump’ but generaly after returning from the heads office when enquired upon by young and inquisitive minds it would usualy be ‘I got the cane’ or ‘I got the stick’ while the more ‘snobbish’ would say ‘I was beaten’ or I was given a thrashing’
This also applied when describing the number of strokes where some boys would just simply say ‘I got six of the best’ while otheres would ommit ‘the best’ and if it was three or four it would just simply be that’I got three’ or just ‘I got four’
If a boy who claimed that he had got six and was’nt willing to submit the evidence by way of dropping his trousers and underpants this was because he probably only goy the minimum of three,or a stronger warning of four.Six of the best spoke for itself as not many boys could return to class without showing obvious signs of pain and that they had been caned hard and been caned to tears.Six of the very best from our headmaster was a very hard and painful caning and not many boys could conceal it well and even four was a struggle.
Thrashing. More often by search word in NZ by Papers Past, as I mention recently and swishing as often mention in accounts written Etonians. Hooray, for onomatopoeia like paddle pops. That noise connection was also previously mentioned her.
in my day here in the midlands uk it was known as the whack. this could be 2 or 3 strokes of the cane applied to the bottom of boy or girl whilst bent over. nobody wanted the whack::::
When i attended school in the sixties and seventies the term we used was a WHACKING both for canings and slipperings of which i received plenty
We also used to refer to ‘having been whacked’ or going to be whacked, when discussing amongst ourselves. I used to use this when speaking to my parents as well, telling them I haad been whacked at school.
When speaking to a teacher though, for some reason, I think I would have always used the term cane, caning or caned as appropriate to the situation. Strange that, never thought about that before.