Memories: a glass cabinet full of canes

Before Boy George became a ‘gender-bender’ global superstar in the 1980s he was plain George O’Dowd and a frequent visitor to the headmaster’s study at his school in working-class London.

He hated the headmaster Mr Dawson. ‘At 9.30 a.m. Dawson, the headmaster and resident Hitler lookalike, would ascend the stairs from the assembly hall. Latecomers were his breakfast. He’d circle around you, eyeing you up and down with a crazed glare. If you were late often and your excuses feeble, it was off to his study for a beating,’ George writes in his autobiography Take It Like A Man (Pan, 1995).

“O’Dowd. Why are you late?”

“Dunno, sir.”

“Don’t know? O’Dowd.”

“Got up late, sir.”

“Wait outside my study.”

George writes, ‘Before Peter Dawson arrived at Eltham Green it had been a school with a bad reputation. Dawson had a reputation of his own. He was a first-class authoritarian and advocate of corporal punishment. Eltham Green was his big chance. You only had to look at him to see he had the ego the size of a barrage balloon. He was a midget of a man, yet wielded immense power and control. Not only with pupils, but teachers too.

‘He would parade the school in mortar board and tassel with matching black pin-pleated cape, peering through the glass partitions in the classroom doors. If he spotted someone not concentrating, or talking, he would fly in like a demented bat. “Outside.” It infuriated the teachers and undermined their authority.

‘He spread terror over the Tannoy, calling out names during lessons. Momentarily you’d feel like a hero, walking out of the class, everyone wondering what you’d done. But a you got closer to the corridor of fear the terror set in. You would be made to wait, sometimes for an hour. That was the worst part.

‘Dawson had a glass cabinet full of canes, various shapes and sizes. Some hurt more than others. He would point to one and make you fetch it. “Bend over.” He would always wait before he hit you. Everything was done mechanically. He savoured the intimidation. This was meant to teach you respect.’

Picture credit: Unknown

 

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