Prefects’ Meetings lasted until around 1970. Throughout that time they penalised smoking, swearing, leaving school in school hours, and wearing uniform incorrectly. In the 1930s, at least, they intruded into the academic areas, punishing boys who copied others’ work or allowed work to be copied. Even boys smoking in their own homes, or in mufti, or on a country railway station, were caned. A Scotch boy was a Scotch boy anywhere, and there was no such thing as a private life. A prefect recalls: