Charterhouse School

Early History

Charterhouse

THE first Charterhouse School was founded in London in 1611 as a home for retired gentlefolk and a school for boys. The original premises can still be seen behind St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and still belong to the School. This was the school Baden-Powell joined as a thirteen-year-old in 1870.

B-P was 15 years old and in his 2nd year when, in 1872, the School moved, relocating close to the town of Godalming. No doubt B-P enjoyed the change to country air. The Headteacher at this time was Dr. Haig-Brown.

BADEN-POWELL AND CHARTHERHOUSE

Charterhouse

The picture shows Girdlestoneites House, which still features a duck by the front door! BADEN-POWELL was in Girdlestoneites House for most of his time at Charterhouse. Like all the other 'houses' at the School it was named after its first Housemaster, a Mr Girdlestone. The boys, however, called it 'Duckites' after the master's nickname, occasioned by the way he waddled rather than walked.

The Housemaster system at Charterhouse comprised a group of boys of different ages and responsibilities, directly responsible to one adult and is not too dissimilar from the structure of a Scout Group! There is no doubt that B-P had a great respect for his housemaster, and he kept up a correspondence with him whilst in the army.

'New Hops', as the boys just joining the School were called, were expected to 'fag', or be at the beck and call of an older boy. In B-P's case, he 'fagged' for Edward H Parry, who was good at sports - particularly football.

The 'fagging' system was, and still is today, prevalent throughout English Public Schools, with younger boys acting as servants to more senior ones or, to put it more charitably, with older boys exercising direct responsibility over their younger charges. The system was very much open to abuse, but B-P did not find it a problem. Indeed, his life at school was less arduous than when he was at home, at the beck and call of all his older brothers.

Life at Charterhouse was by no means all toil and, in his middle years at the School, B-P joined a secret society called 'The Druids', all members of which had nicknames. B-P's, rather prophetically, was Lord Bathing-Towel.

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BADEN-POWELL was a 'Gown Boy'- a title given to pupils who had won one of the few scholarships to Charterhouse - only forty in total, spread over all the year groups. This was important for B-P, because though he came from a large well-connected family, his mother was widowed the family were not particularly well off. What his mother Henrietta lacked in finance however, she made up for in her ability to 'pull strings'.

School Reports indicate he "…. had given up the study of Maths…." and slept during French lessons. However, his classics teacher, Thomas Page, pronounced his Latin and Greek "…. satisfactory in every respect…." B-P characteristically put his success down to "…. cramming in good hands…."

Most commentators agree, however, that the one subject in which Baden-Powell excelled was Drama. He took part in many school productions and, on occasion, he filled in with impromptu items.

Many sources and memoirs credit B-P with being able to play the piano, violin, harmonica, ocarina, flugel horn and bugle, no less. (No single source, however, lists more than four instruments!)

The first School production in which B-P appeared was 'To Parents and Guardians' and then 'Box and Cox', in which he played the female rôle of Cox. Later on, B-P took part in 'The Waterman', (part of the programme cover for which is shown here) and had various rôles in other reviews. This was to stand B-P in good stead during the Siege of Mafeking when morale often needed a boost through the 217 long and dangerous days of the siege. B-P recognised the camaraderie that such shows generated. He thought that "Play acting ought to form a part of every boy's education ..." and advocated that Scout Groups performed shows, so sowing the seeds for later 'Gang Shows'.

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BADEN-POWELL was a keen member of the School's Army Cadet Corps. In this photograph of the 1874 Charterhouse Rifle Team, taken at the Public Schools Rifle Shooting Competition at Wimbledon, B-P stands second from the left and was accredited with the only bull's-eye of the day.

In later times, B-P was to deny vehemently, with, I feel, some justification, that his Scouts were designed merely to be a 'character factory' for Army recruitment. He was against Scouts 'drilling', as was done in the Boy's Brigade and Cadet Corps and from the start, he laid great emphasis on what he called 'Peace Scouting'. After the First World War it would not be an exaggeration to say that both B-P and his wife devoted their lives to the furtherance of a World-wide movement to ensure that brother Scouts would never again have to bear arms against each other. That aside, B-P never lost an opportunity to impress upon boys that learning to shoot straight was a skill that would be helpful to them and their country. The 'Marksman' Proficiency Badge is one of dozens that Scouts have always been able to earn, and can still earn today.

It is interesting to note that it is only those who have never been Scouts who fuel the 'cannon fodder' argument. I do not have any figures to confirm this, but I would be greatly surprised to learn that, other than in times of war, the 'Marksman' Badge has never come remotely near the 'top-ten' of favourite badges.

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POSSIBLY due to his early association with Edward H Parry, Baden-Powell was also a keen football player. Today, the First-Eleven Football pitch at Charterhouse remains in the same position as it was in B-P's days. He played for the team as its regular goalkeeper in his last year at the School in 1876, and was considered 'cool under pressure'. A reflection of this, on B-P's return to Charterhouse after Mafeking, a contemporary of his, the Vicar of the nearby village of Godalming, put out a banner declaring "Goal Well Kept, B-P"

The School's prowess at football was demonstrated in 1881, only five years after Baden-Powell left, when the 'Old Carthusians' - as old boys from the School are called - won the F.A. Cup! There is a painting of a football game in action in the School museum and, whilst the School still plays football in the same colours, the painting has players wearing shorts that come below the knee and are navy in colour. They look to be identical to those worn by Boy Scouts up to the Second World War. Is it possible that B-P remembered his footballing days when he designed the Scout uniform?

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Despite criticisms from some of his Masters for inattention, B-P did learn enough at School to excel in his Army Entrance Exams in 1876. This could well have had something to do with the excellent training he received in the Cadet Corps at Charterhouse. His results were spectacular, coming second in a field of 700 applicants. Due to this achievement, he was directly commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the 13th Hussars. B-P was quickly promoted and rose through the ranks. In 1884 he visited South Africa for the first time. In 1899, at the start of the Boer War and now a Colonel, B-P was placed in charge of the town of Mafeking. One of the last things he did in England before he embarked for South Africa was to 'tread the boards' of the professional stage at The Haymarket Theatre, London, in a review to raise funds for his old School's Christian Mission to the London slums.

The Boers had laid siege to Mafeking in October 1899, the siege lasting until May 1900. B-P attained great popularity by his brilliant defence of Mafeking. Wild celebrations (known as 'mafficking') took place throughout England and Colonel Robert Baden-Powell was known as "The Hero of Mafeking". His successful Army career continued, becoming Inspector General of Cavalry in 1903, then Major General and finally Lieutenant General before retiring from the Army in 1910.

The events of the Siege deserve, and will have, their own Milestone. However, a section on The Mafeking Cadets is already available.

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IN Mafeking, the odds were so clearly stacked against the small town that raising morale was a major consideration. Throughout his Army career, Baden-Powell had been able to entertain and amuse, whether on land or sea, which made him many friends and kept him firmly in the eye of his senior officers. In Mafeking, B-P was to be the senior officer and was able to use his talents to the full. He would bring the house down with his comic parodies, especially that of Signor Paderewski, the idiosyncratic Italian pianist, but his greater talent was, perhaps, in inspiring others to use their initiative towards the common good.

As a by-product of these Scouting Milestones, I have, after reading all the published, and some of the unpublished diaries of the events, complied a 'Mafeking Siege Register'. The Register lists most, if not all, the inhabitants of the town at the time, their activities during the Siege and sometimes their eventual fate and shows the remarkable involvement of all the civil and military personnel in activities which not only raised their morale, but confounded their enemies.

Then-new technology brought Baden-Powell unprecedented fame. The London newspapers had ensured that their correspondents were in Mafeking before it was besieged. Local Baralong runners, often at the cost of their own lives, took the journalist's copy through the enemy lines at night to the nearest telegraph office not captured by the Boers. The British public waited eagarly to learn the fate of this very much outnumbered and out-gunned corner of the British Empire. What they read about its resourceful, if laconic, Colonel exhibiting 'the best of British pluck', filled them with pride. Before this, there had only been failures and reverses to report. Newspaper readers could identify with what was happening; clearly, as the Siege went on, it was going to be a race to the finish with hunger and disease the winner even if the Boers were not, unless the Relief Column were to arrive in time.

Back at Charterhouse, a Master had started a 'Support B-P Fund'. The boys collected over £1,450.00 (worth about £80,000.00 today), together with 145 packing cases of 'comforts for the troops', not to mention a pair of field glasses for their hero, B-P. Would their gifts arrive before the end of the Siege? Messages hummed back and forth over the telegraph lines and B-P was able to read about his Old School's efforts in the 'Special Siege Slips' of their own local newspaper, the 'Mafeking Mail'.

The British public and the Boers knew the Relief Column was on its way. The Boers made a final onslaught just before its arrival, which was repulsed with many of the enemy captured. When the news reached England that Mafeking had at last been relieved, the country went wild. The verb 'to maffick' was coined to explain the unprecedented celebrations in every corner of the land, and nowhere less than at Charterhouse - the news reached the School late at night, resulting in rejoicing, high spirits and general pandemonium!

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'THE Hero of Mafeking' was the most popular soldier of the day, if not the most popular figure of the time. It is not surprising then, that he should have been fêted by his Old School. They commissioned a painting of him by George Frederick Watts who, from all accounts, was lucky to get B-P in one place long enough to arrange a sitting. His mother, ever open to social advancement, had commissioned an hitherto unseen family coat of arms and the School were delighted to feature this on one of the stone archways on the northern wall of C Block. It is very impressive; alongside numerous lions there is a diagonal row of arrowheads. The term 'Arrowhead' is sometimes incorrectly applied to the Scouting fleur-de-lis.

The photograph on the right shows a very dapper B-P (right) with his old Headteacher, Dr Haig-Brown (centre), and the then current Headteacher; the Rev. Gerald Rendall (1897-1911). It was taken on B-P's triumphant return visit to Charterhouse in 1901 after his success in Mafeking.

Dr. Haig-Brown was something of a character and a revolutionary educator in his day. B-P tells many affectionate stories about him. The most revealing I think recalls Haig-Brown enabling his charges to 'get one over' on some butcher's boys from the neighbouring Smithfield Market, in a bit of skirmish between 'town and gown', by using his key to open a gate, resulting in the street lads being outmanoeuvred. Sadly, Dr Haig-Brown did not live long enough to see his former pupil's greatest achievement - the founding of the Boy Scout movement.

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BADEN-POWELL returned to Charterhouse to unveil a memorial in a new extension to the 35 ex-pupils who died in the hostilities. This seems to be an amazingly high figure for school with less than 400 pupils at the time. W Francis Aitken, in a contemporary biography of Baden-Powell, claims that there were 226 Old Cathusians at the front in South Africa. If we assume that they would have been officers, the Carthusians account for just over 3% of all officer fatalities, and these were only the ones that died; there must have been other survivors besides B-P! Although a major conflict, the Boer War was not a World War. The British Army also had many regiments, presumably including some Carthusians, committed elsewhere.

Amongst those fallen early in the Siege on October 31st, 1899, was a Captain Douglas H Marsham, whom a Mafeking diarist notes was 'beloved of all'. Though Captain Marsham was not a contemporary of B-P, he must have been the only other ex-pupil from the School in the besieged town, as B-P advertised in the 'Mail Slip' for other "Old Carthusians with whom to celebrate the School's 'Founder's Day'". He was moved to write to his mother that, of the 1,000 or so Europeans in the place, not one had responded to his advertisement. Later in his life, in 1923, Baden-Powell was made the President of the Old Carthusian Club and steward of the Founders Day Dinner.

The extraordinary number of ex-pupils involved in the Boer War bear testimony to the rôle that the School has always traditionally played in providing 'officer material' to the armed forces. The memorial lists the major sieges and battles with no special prominence given to that of Mafeking. Interestingly, the device at the top of the memorial is of St. George and the Dragon and was often used by Baden-Powell to symbolise the rôle he hoped that Scouts might play in overcoming evil and in helping the weak.

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BADEN-POWELL'S son and his nephew both attended Charterhouse, and claimed to have found the place where B-P 'sloped off' to snare rabbits and cook meals - successfully evading the Masters who came to look for him. B-P verified this on a visit, though some doubt has been shed on the exact location of the copse. B-P said that it was off to the right and downhill from the football pitch. B-P's daughter Heather in her Baden-Powell A Family Album wrote that her father was fond of recounting the words on a sign raised next to the only pool of water near Charterhouse which was deep enough in which to learn to swim - NO BOY CAN BATHE UNTIL HE CAN SWIM.

The pool in the River Way was just below Raquet's Wood Copse. Whether or not that was the copse, I don't know, but B-P acknowledged the formative influence of the experiences he had there on his later life and the establishment of Scouting. "It was in the copse that I gained most of what helped me on in after life to find the joy of living." (From Greyfriars Magazine in 1922 - on the 50th Anniversary of Charterhouse School's move to Godalming.)

Peter, B-P's son, was not a natural scholar and was at Charterhouse for only two and a half years, between 1927 and 1930, as he repeatedly failed to gain his School Examination Certificate. This was naturally a disappointment to B-P, but retrospectively his wife Olave realised that Charterhouse was not best suited to the boy. (The life and times of Peter will be more fully covered in a future Milestone - Nature or Nurture.)

Whilst in his first year at the School, Peter was able to play his father in the 'Masque' performed every four years. Against a tableaux of Mafeking and Boy Scouts pushing their trek cart, the orator intoned:-

Now the old heroes of a former day Have struck their shadowy tents and stol'n away The voice is still, and hushed their music's strains The legend of the living man remains; Who youthful yet at three score years and ten, To manly service trains the sons of men. In our copse he learnt his tracker's art Wherewith to unlock the door of boyhood's heart. Called the world's youth to adventurous brotherhood, And generous efforts for the common good. Now young and old alike his work proclaim, And bless our School for Baden-Powell's name.

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IN 1927, the School opened its new cathedral-sized chapel, which was, amazingly, built by Charterhouse's own ground staff to a design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), who was also responsible for the then-new Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. As parents, B-P and his family had been invited to attend the consecration. His judgement was succinct - "It would make a good airship hangar". Coincidentally (and there were many coincidences in B-P's life!), one of the young men singing in the choir that day, John King, was later to marry Heather Baden-Powell, who could not have realised as she sat in the congregation that her future husband had, like her father, played in goal for the First XI.

Like John King, B-P also sang in the school choir, though not of course in this chapel. In 1913 a group of Scouts visited Charterhouse, B-P could not be there, but wrote them a letter. In it, he remembered with affection that his place in the old chapel had been just in front of Thomas Sutton's tomb. His time at the school, he wrote, was the best three years of his life.

In the image opposite of a window in the new chapel, you may be able to discern the knight kneeling with his sword before an altar. B-P often used this device as pictorial illustration, sometimes in association with the 'Knight's Vigil', part of a Rover Scout's initiation.

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TODAY, in the Charterhouse School Museum, is a Field Artillery Piece donated by B-P. Dr. Rendall (Headmaster 1897-1911) wrote to him asking if it might be possible to obtain a piece of ordnance from Mafeking and B-P replied saying he would see what could be done. When the gun arrived at the School, and until quite recent times, it was thought to have been used in the Siege, but it was actually brought up by Baden-Powell's brother, Baden, to bring about the Relief. The gun has recently been painted in a drab sand colour by the Beverly Army Museum and is, presumably, correct, although it does not look it! The plaque states that it is a Nine-pounder, but Nine-pounders were not used by the Army in the Boer War and, according to the curator of the Mafeking Museum, who has visited the school. it is a 3" Seven-pounder made in 1873 and was used in several of the Boer War campaigns - the last being the relief of Mafeking.

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NOT surprisingly, the School has a Scout Troop. (The Notice Board at the time of my visit had a notice for Venture Scouts.) Traditionally, Charterhouse devotes one afternoon a week to service to the community both in the school and out. The Combined Cadet Force and the Scouts form part of this programme.

That Charterhouse is proud of its most famous pupil there can be no doubt. I gained the impression though, that in a very English way, the School is very careful not to unduly promote B-P's achievements. That might just be seen to diminish the accomplishments of other Old Carthusians, who include many of the great and good in present and past times. Charterhouse, like most schools, can have a great effect on its pupils. B-P himself was always ready to acknowledge the formal and informal lessons that he learned there. However, no matter how famous in later life, the effect that any one pupil can have on their school is a totally different matter. I don't know if present pupils would agree but, for me, the B-P spirit is still to be found in Charterhouse.