many people in my days at school got caned (and at home also).
My older brother and (more) older sister both went to the same mixed grammar school in Birmingham in the late 1940s. My brother was always indignant that boys were caned whilst girls were not, although as far as I know he behaved well enough to escape. He illustrates his views with the account of an incident which occurred on the way to a sports lesson.
It seems that pupils changed for sport in proper changing rooms by the gymnasium in the main school but then had to be ‘crocodiled’ across a road to the sports field on the other side. On the day in question (summer) during this crossing a girl successfully grabbed hold of one of the boy’s shorts and had them down to his knees before he realized what was happening, thus exposing his bottom and everything else to an elderly lady who was passing by.