Benefits of the birch ...

I was never birched myself but I have not the slightest doubt I should have benefited much by it – an  Old Boy of Harrow public school writes to a newspaper in 1899.

SIR –

As an old member of Harrow School I take the liberty of giving my experience of how and when corporal punishment was administered there in my time. First of all, it was applied by the head master, and never by any one else, and certainly not before the whole school, but only in the presence of a custodian who stood close to the head master to see that he on no account raised his arm above his shoulder.

I suppose on an average some dozen boys out of about 550 were birched every term, not more I think.

No boy is ever birched on the hands, they evidently recognise there the harm that might possibly ensue, as has been lately demonstrated by Dr Monckton’s statement of his own experience, not only from a doctor’s point of view, but by the permanent injury of his hands.

Birching at Harrow is only resorted to for very severe offences, and after all other modes of punishment have failed.

“Defender,” in his letter, speaks of the splendid discipline at Harrow. I think this fact is due more perhaps to the birch than to home training. I was never birched myself but I have not the slightest doubt I should have benefited much by it, on the condition that it was administered on the “proper” place and not on the hands.

I am etc., “Harrovian”

As published in the Feilding Star (New Zealand), 24 April 1899.

Picture credit (a modern re-enactment of a birching): Sting Pictures

 

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