Chris Snuggs - Berners/Halls 58-65: I have always thought even at school that naming the houses after the first housemasters was not the best option. William Halls, for example, left after only two years, so was it really appropriate to have a house named after him for the next four decades? I would have done the usual thing and gone for four famous British people. My first choice would have been: Faraday, Newton, Brunel and Lister. Apart from anything else that would have given staff a good excuse to teach the boys ABOUT the men their house was named after. Or perhaps it would have been preferable to have not four scientists but a mixture of specialisations such as: Faraday, Brunel, Shakespeare and Turner? And should TWO of the original names have been females? (Florence) Nightingale for sure and perhaps Franklin (Rosalind, who died tragically young after not sharing as she deserved the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA). Well, water under the bridge, but regarding Mr Halls, I have never been able to find out much about him EXCEPT in this post from Warren Charing (Halls 51-53): "Bill Hall taught me French and was a benign, friendly gentleman of the old school.He treated all his boys respectfully, and I never heard him raise his voice in anger or heard of him physically punish any boy. He left Woolverstone to return to Oxford in 1953 to gain a post-graduate degree in modern languages." I wonder what he did after getting his degree? I posted this in "Memories" some years ago! I have often wondered how the houses came to get their names. I suppose that Mr Smitherman in the early 50s made the final decision, but to what extent did he involve the governors? And WHY were they named after the then housemasters? WHO had the first idea, I wonder? Were they sitting in a meeting and one of them popped up with: "I think we should name the houses after US, Headmaster." Bit forward, no? Or was it Smitherman's idea - which they presumably went along with? Any WHY this idea? I mean, housemasters are more transient than houses, as is obvious from the fact that I never knew Mr Halls, or even who he was until recently. The other three soldiered on for quite a long time, but even they eventually departed, Mr Johnston the first, I think. On the face of it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And Berners and Orwell? I can see why they would want to preserve the historical "Berners" name, but why "Orwell", which was hardly much nearer the river than Hansons? Was there NO housemaster of Orwell to name the house after at that time? Or perhaps he had a horrible name, or simply refused to play the game? I can see that if the then housemaster of the later Orwell had been called Sir Henry Finknottle-Cholmondley-Smythe the IIIrd it would have caused a problem. Hansons, Johnstons, Corners and Halls roll off the tongue quite smoothly, but Finknottle etc? Even worse, imagine the then housemaster had been one of my ancestors: "Snuggs House"? It is the stuff of nightmares. |