Govt. minister was ferocious caner of boys when prefect
Douglas Hurd, a once senior cabinet minister in Conservative-lead British governments, was an enthusiastic beater of younger boys when he was Captain of School at Eton – this from the Independent in 1996.
Leading article: Flogging the establishment
He that
spareth the rod hateth his son, the Book of Proverbs tells us in chapter 13,
verse 24. John Patten, the former education secretary,
might well agree. He was flogged with a ferula – a 2ft long whalebone strap –
by the Jesuits at Wimbledon College. Corporal punishment, said Mr Patten some
30 years later, “under certain circumstances can be really useful”. We are
perhaps intended to infer that it clearly did him no harm.
Why then,
with this endorsement at both cabinet and biblical level, has Douglas Hurd gone on to the defensive over a
reference to his exploits while at Eton? Sebastian Faulks, in his new book The
Fatal Englishman writes of Jeremy Wolfenden being beaten by the Captain of School,
“a grave boy called Douglas Hurd”. Reviewing the book, the former foreign
secretary criticises the chapter on Wolfenden and its “inaccurate account of a
beating I am supposed to have given him at Eton”. The inaccuracy, however,
seems to be solely in the date given for the event. Indeed, Douglas Hurd’s
reputation as a flogger crops up surprisingly often in reminiscences of old
Etonians. Does his disavowal indicate a schism with the flogging tendency of
the party, or is Mr Hurd simply trying not to thrash against the tide of
history?
 |
Douglas
Hurd
The
barbaric practice of caning is mercifully on its way out, yet it has clearly
left its scars, paradoxically more markedly on the floggers than the floggees.
As exemplified by the memories of the proud-to-be-beaten Patten and the “inaccurate
account” Hurd, it is those who administer barbarity who wish to forget, to hide
it under the carpet rather shamefully. Those who suffered under it have little
alternative but to believe it was good for them. When a recent biography of Anthony Chenevix-Trench accused the late Eton headmaster
of being sadistically fond of caning, howls of protest were heard from boys he
had thrashed, united in defending his reputation.
Yet what
of our other cabinet ministers and captains of industry and the civil service
who were educated at public school? What bonds have been tied through
thrashings? Who thrashed whom, how often, and when? Surely this is something to
be included in the register of members' interests. The British establishment is
riven by many factions, but it may be that the divide between the floggers and
the flogged is one of the least articulated but most important.
As
published in The Independent, 24 April 1996.
Picture
credits: The Magnet, unknown.
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