Walworth Saint Peter

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Further Tragedy at St Peter’s School

Following the death of Mr Christopher in January 1877, his widow the Headmistress to the girls, continued teaching, and remained as a tenant in the schoolhouse. The Managers of St Peter’s made it known at their midsummer committee meeting that they wanted a married couple to run the Schools. This meant re-housing Mrs Christopher and finding a suitable partnership for the scholars as soon as possible. During the interim temporary masters and mistresses came and went, some only remaining for a few days.

St Peter's School just before its demolition in 1905

Mr [and Mrs] William and Emily Down visited the school in September and accepted the respective Heads’ positions. Husband and wife began in earnest on October 30^th 1877. The St Peter’s boys now had their fourth Headmaster in less than a year; whilst the girls were on their fifth Mistress in less than six weeks!

A little over two years later during another scarlet fever epidemic Mr and Mrs Down lost a son to the killer disease. They were half expecting it. Mr Down wrote in his brief account of 28^th November 1879, “Owing to the almost sudden death of my son on Monday afternoon I did not attend for the remainder of the week.” Mrs Down also appears to have taken the sadness in her stride, “Mistress absent” she wrote, “owing to death in family.” They returned to work the following Monday. It was bitterly cold on Shaftesbury Street.

Tragedy seemed to stalk the occupants of the St Peter’s School house. Mr Church, another late Head and the first resident of the home, died whilst abiding there in 1864. In the winter of 1872-73 after six months in the house as Master and Mistress, Mr and Mrs Daniel Taylor lost two young children in quick succession to scarlet fever. After Christmas Mr Taylor recorded, “Death of my little girl during the holidays.” followed only a few days later by, “Death of my youngest child.” Mrs Sarah Taylor echoed with “Mistress absent from prayers during these four days. Illness. Death.” And “Mistress out of school during the afternoon, and one [sic] home in the morning. Domestic trouble.” Referring to the death of one’s child as “domestic trouble” may seem rather cold to some of us, but infant mortality was common in Victorian times, and mothers accepted it more readily.

Playing Truant

Primary schools do not have as big a problem with truancy as secondary schools, but in an earlier time when children stayed at the one school until fourteen years of age it was more of a problem.

One St Peter's Headmaster, Mr John Corris, on the 21^st July 1870 wrote, “Punished the boy Mudd for truanting.” The next day, “Punished Thos. Allen for truanting.” “Webb” is punished on the 26^th, “Chas. Webb” again on the 2^nd August, followed by Edwin Jones a day later. Mudd and Dolby, Miller, Livingston follow in quick succession.

Mr William Down, the Headmaster of St Peter’s School from 1877 to 1883 strongly believed that truancy from school led to further mischief. On the 23^rd May 1879 he wrote, “A parent called this morning to inform me that his son, a boy of the 4^th Standard was absent from school the whole of Tuesday and Wednesday without his permission. Received instructions to punish him as thought proper. Spoke to the whole school at 12am on the evils arising from contracting bad habits in youth.”

The same evil was addressed a year later on 23^rd April 1880. “Three boys of Standard 3 played truant the whole of Wednesday. After-wards spoke to the whole school on the disgrace boys bring upon themselves who idle about in the streets in this way.” Years later, at the beginning of the 20^th century one Walworth street urchin expressed a similar thought vividly, concisely, truthfully: “First you hops the wag, then you nicks, and then you bashes the copper.”

The next Head was Mr Alfred Down, the brother of William. He was less lenient. “Made an example of a boy who played truant by dismissing him from the school.” That recording was made on the 5^th November 1886. Mr A.S. Down remained the Headmaster of St Peter’s for 35 years! He finally quit in 1919.

Exclusion is sometimes the only option for very naughty children. At the Girls School in October 1873, Mrs Sarah Taylor “Advised Mrs Clayton to remove her daughter to another school as her conduct had a baneful influence on our elder girls.”

Guy Fawkes

image from www.scrapalbum.com/agfp1.htm

The St Peter's Girls School logbook for November 5^th 1883 reads, “Numbers poor in morning, and worse in afternoon owing to it being Guy Fawkes Day.” The Victorians did not have the access to the amount of pyrotechnics we have now, but they celebrated Guy Fawkes Night with bonfires and firework parties in remembrance of the foiling of the gunpowder plot and treason of 1605. For a while in the nineteenth century the children were officially given the afternoon off school.

A few days later the “School Board Officer found many children away from school looking after the guys in the street during the week.” Guying is not as common a sight today, but in the past, at the end of almost every street you would find groups of children parading an effigy of Guy Fawkes made out of old clothes and newspapers. This was an exciting time of the year for the poor youngsters who would ask passing adults, “A penny for the guy?” It was an easy way for them to make a little bit more money.

The School Board Officers worked for the Local Education Authority, and part of their job was to look out for children playing truant or not attending school. Parents would be in a lot of trouble if their child continued to be absent without a proper reason.

The Death of a Headmaster

Mr Samuel Christopher was employed as Head Master of St Peter’s Boys School from 12^th October 1874. His wife Mary took charge of the Girls School. Just two years later, almost to the day, Mr Christopher suffered a severe bout of illness, which kept him at home for four weeks. The couple lived in the house attached to the school. This was very convenient, for although his sickness prevailed for some time, he was able to pop in to school several times a week to see how things were progressing. In his absence the Assistant Master covered his duties.

Mr Christopher did not fully recover from the illness he protracted, and as the school broke up for Christmas he resigned from his position as Head of the School. The illness continued into the new year, and sadly Mr Christopher died on Tuesday 23^rd January 1877.

On Friday January 26^th 1877, Mrs Mary Christopher noted in the Girls School logbook, “In consequence of the death of my dear husband – late Head Master of the Boys School - the school has been conducted this week by the Assistant Mistress and Pupil Teacher.” A week later the children were given the afternoon off to take the opportunity of seeing Mr Christopher’s funeral. Mrs Christopher gave up her job six months later.

Note: Mr and Mrs Christopher had at least four children. Included in an October 1877 list of girl pupils are Kate and Alice Christopher, aged ten and twelve respectively. Both children were admitted in October 1874 as one would expect. In the corresponding list for 1875 we find eleven year old Mary.

Copyright: Jack McInroy © 2010

Corporal Punishment

The St Peter’s School logbooks of the Victorian era do not reveal a great deal about corporal punishment. Cases like the following from 31^st January 1878 are few and far between. “Louisa Payne was sent out of her class by the teacher, and her mother very impudently came into the room and said, “her child should not have the cane but that I should cane her (the mother) first”.”

Another example from the Boys logbook of 11^th September 1877, “Had to punish a boy named Walker for repeated laziness and troublesome conduct. [He] refused to hold his hand out when requested and as this was not the first instance of insubordination I deemed it necessary to make an example of him and therefore did not finish with him until he held out his hand. In the afternoon his father and another man called and informed me that the boy would be taken away and I should “hear further of it”.”

Far from being concerned, Mr Meech was only too pleased to see the back of the boy, adding “As I understand, the boy is very sullen and disobedient. This is decidedly the best thing that could have happened.”

One other example shows that being late for school earned you more than a mark in the late book. You may also have received a mark on the backside or the hand! This from19^th June 1885. “A few boys were caned for coming habitually late.”

In England and Wales children were given corporal punishment up until the 1970s. We have the St Peter’s School Punishment Book from 1906 to 1962 which details all the corporal punishment meted out to children in school. New regulations were drawn up by the London County Council in 1905, and these had to be strictly adhered to. Teachers were not allowed to box children’s ears, cuff them round the head, shake them or make blows with the hand. A cane had to be used as the instrument of punishment, except in the Infants School, where a slap was thought to be sufficient.

Generally the Head dealt out the punishment himself, or delegated the task to another teacher. A cane was kept in the Headmaster’s office with the Punishment Book. After inflicting the punishment, sometimes as many as four strokes but usually two, the cane and book had to be returned to the Headmaster. Contrary to popular belief teachers did not have their own individual canes.

Eleven year old William Bond has the ignominy of being the first child to have his name recorded in the St Peter’s Punishment Book. Four strokes from Mr Down for “Talking and lying.”

Bullying of Girls by Boys

Some children outside St Peter's School, Shaftesbury Street, 1905

Bullying other children and mugging is not just a recent occurrence. A recording in the St Peter's Girls School logbook for 12^th April 1877 shows that on some occasions drastic measures were called for. Mrs Christopher, the Headmistress notes, “Several rough boys have all this week stopped the girls going out of school and obliged them to give up their pencils or anything else to which they take a fancy. I therefore sent to the Police Station requesting the inspector to let a policeman come round this way occasionally.”

Something similar happened during the Great Dock Strike of 1889. Headmistress Mrs Andrews wrote, “Had to let the girls go home at 4 o’clock because of a number of boys ‘on strike’ annoying the girls in the morning. Policeman stationed outside for remainder of day.”

Like the fire-fighters and tube workers today, the dock workers were striking for higher pay, and received the support of employees from other industries who also came out on strike. With nothing to do all day, some unscrupulous working boys hung around the school gates causing bother. These boys were probably 14 and 15 year old ex-pupils of St Peter’s.

The Death of the School Mistress’s Son

In October 1869 Mrs Harriet Church, the Headmistress of the St Peter's Girls School suffered another dire calamity. Only six years earlier, her husband, the late Headmaster, died following a long illness. The School logbook, written up by Mrs Church at the end of each day, reveals that scarlet fever* had become prevalent among the families that lived in the vicinity of the school. Scarlet fever was a contagious disease that sometimes proved fatal. On Monday 11^th October she writes, “Pupil Teacher from school nursing my own children who are suffering from it.”

On Thursday two schoolchildren were taken ill with the disease. Three more children were sent home the following day having become very ill. Over the weekend Mrs Church contracted the disease herself and was absent from duties on the Monday. She left the school in the hands of her second daughter Harrietti and Mr Crampton, the Master of the Boys School. She returned later in the week to pen the sorrowful words “My dear child died.” continuing, “Miss Pound kindly conducted school on Thursday and Friday.”

Studying the corresponding logbooks of the Boys School we discover that Mr Crampton made a similar recording. “The death of the Schoolmistress’s elder son and the prevalence of the disease from which he died (scarlet fever) determined the managers to close the school for a few days.” In fact the fever in the neighbourhood had become “very alarming, and the attendance has consequently suffered.” Within a fortnight “the cases of fever [were] more numerous.”

The committee ordered that Mrs Church be allowed a month’s holiday to mourn the tragic loss of her dear son. As a mark of respect, both Girls and Boys schools were closed for a week.

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Note: * Once upon a time scarlet fever was a very serious childhood disease. Today it is easily treatable with antibiotics. The symptoms begin with a fever and sore throat that develops into chills, vomiting and abdominal pain. A rash develops on the neck and chest and then spreads around the armpits and groin. It is spread by direct contact with an infected person or by droplets exhaled by an infected person.

St Peter's School and Church, Walworth

Tuesday, 30 November 2010