Letter of Remorse

17 April 1964

Dear Headmaster

I am writing this letter of apology as instructed by you this afternoon. I would like to thank you for the way you treated me. You were humane in your approach and I fully understand that you could have been far more forceful. I accept I thoroughly deserved the punishment you administered.

I confess that I had been stealing cash from the tuckshop over several weeks. I did not take this because I needed the money to alleviate poverty. My parents are comfortable and I receive adequate pocket money from them each week. I selfishly stole the money because I wanted to buy magazines and pop records which I did.

I am a senior boy and eighteen years old and I accept that I should know how to behave. By being a thief, I have let myself down. I have let you down and I have let the school down. I fully acknowledge that I should be a guide to younger boys at the school and as a prefect I had a role to play making a good image of the school.

I am grateful that you did not inform the police. I accept that I behaved like a criminal and I broke the law. If you had informed them I accept that I would have ended up in court and consequently I would have a criminal record that would stain my life. I thank you also for not expelling me from the school. The exams are upon us and I would not be able to take them and that means I would not be able to try for a place at university. That too would affect my whole life.

I fully accept your right to punish me as you saw fit. I have been caned several times at school but this was the first time I was required to go over the back of a chair after lowering my trousers to my ankles. To present my bottom to you clad in white cotton Y-front underpants was humiliating, but I am grateful that you decided not to punish me in front of the whole school. You would have been within your rights to do so.

I accept that you could also have caned me while my underpants were bunched at my knees. I understand that there was a time when magistrates were empowered to order people of my age to be birched on the bared buttocks for crimes of theft. I am grateful that you spared me this.

The twelve strokes you administered across the seat of my underpants were delivered with an expertise that can be described as breathtaking. When some of the fellows in the Sixth took me to the lavatories to see my marks there was general admiration. The whole dozen strokes landed in a band about two inches in width and the welts were clearly visible. Even now, some hours after the deed was completed, I find it mightily uncomfortable to sit on a hard surface. The marks will undoubtedly be with me for many days to come.

I understand that you were obliged to tell my parents of my misdeeds. I am ashamed that my mother is distraught and fears for the reputation of the family. My father, who himself went to a grammar school not unlike our own, is grateful to you for your actions and wishes me to tell you that as soon as my marks have cleared he intends in his words to give me ‘the thrashing of my life.’

I Remain and Forever Humbly Yours,

J. H. C. Haxtell-Oxenham

Picture credit: CP Services, London

SOURCE

Traditional School Discipline

Traditionalschooldiscipline@gmail.com