During my first year at high school I was caned on 28 separate occasions which I think was probably below average for the rest of my classmates. Mostly one or two strokes, usually from the Head Boy (prefect) although I did receive a memorable sixer from the duty master who caught me retrieving a ball from the railway line beside the school.
Corporal punishment was so matter-of-fact. For most lads, it was just a hazard of everyday life. Disagreeable, but you got over it.
We swam naked in the school pool. Boys who dived off the tower above the fence-line were required to wear togs. Heaven forbid any passing housemaid from the boarding establishment should catch a glimpse of healthy young male buttocks or wedding-tackle!
Comics and those Annuals from ‘Home’ which an Aunt sent me for birthdays and Christmas, often had a school story or two. Beatings were usually light-hearted affairs as in the Billy Bunter stories.