He helped birch a king, princes and several cabinet ministers

 

Eton College must be one of the most well-known schools in the world. The English “public” school certainly seems to be the most written about in history. In 1931 when a quite minor servant at the school died it made news across the world. Why? Because he had helped to birch a king, many princes, dukes, earls, Cabinet Ministers, judges and several bishops. That, of course, was while they were pupils at the school.

Here’s what the newspapers wrote at the time.

HELPED TO THRASH KING

“FUSEE,” THE MAN BOYS LOVED AND FEARED

Memories – some of them painful – will be stirred in all Old Etonians throughout the world by the news of the death recently of Mr. William Hall, more familiarly known as “Fusee,” who as school messenger at Eton College for 45 years, helped to thrash more famous people than any other assistant at the “birching block.”

He died at his house in Slough at the age of 74, a year after his retirement from the service.

His nickname of “Fusee” is attributed to sandy-red hair and ruddy complexion when he was appointed to the post in 1884, after having passed through the Zulu and Boer Wars and the Egyptian campaign of 1882.

One crowned head (the King of Siam), many princes, dukes, earls, Cabinet Ministers, judges, soldiers and other celebrities remember him with mixed feelings. The fame that came to these people left him unmoved.

“The rod never spoiled the child at Eton,” he used to say. “If they got into mischief they were punished, and took it without a whimper.”

But he would never divulge what passed behind the scenes of the birching room. Potential bishops may have used bad language, and future field marshals squirmed, but “Fusee” never told.

“An Eton birch is a thing to be proud of,” he wrote in the Sunday Express, when he celebrated his seventy-first birthday.

Of the Bishop of St. Albans he said:

“I never remember his actually getting the birch, but he deserved it often enough. He was a very big lad, and always up to some prank or another.”

“Fusee” also related how, during a visit by the King and Queen with Lord Rosebery soon after Prince Henry had left, the Queen, handling the birch, said, “surely they do not beat the boys with this. I hope Henry never needed it.” She was assured that Henry escaped it.

 

As published in King County Chronicle (New Zealand), 15 January 1931.

Picture credit: Look and Learn

 

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