Fr Paul died on 25 January 1954

Miscellaneous

Home

The Dormitory Bell rang – a day in the life of a Fourth Former

In the morning the dormitory bell rang.  In that first year we slept in what is now the Chaplaincy, then the Junior Dormitory of St Dunstan’s.  The dormitory was complete silence.  Not even whispers were allowed, and the dormitory monitor gave us lines.  He has malaria, and he sometimes collapsed unconscious on the ground, and we picked him up – all this is true. 

It was Monday morning, 25 January 1954 at 7.05am.  We crawled out of bed, and went to the wash basins, down the stairs to what is now the Academic Office and Mr Lloyd and beyond.  There were no showers, no showers anywhere, but we had a weekly bath, roughly where the School Shop is now, and we could wash our feet in a foot bath after rugby.  But now it was early morning, dark, cold, fine, and we had 20 minutes to wash, dress, and go to the Abbey Church. There were 8 houses – four inner houses, 4 outer houses as we called them. The Inner Houses - St Aidan’s, St Bede’s, St Oswald’s and St Dunstan’s - were all in the area around the present Main Hall, Big Study and above and they came to the Abbey Church at 7.25am.  The outer Houses were St Cuthbert’s [beyond the monastery],  St Wilfrid’s and St Edward’s in Bolton House, and St Thomas as at present [except the VI Form of St Thomas lived in a separate building without any adult near what is now SAC] – and they must have had Mass on their own each morning.  Every morning we came to the Abbey at 7.25am, first for Morning Prayers, then for Mass.  Mass of course was entirely in Latin, with the priest, our housemaster, facing the other way, towards the altar. At the end of Mass, we remained for a moment of prayer, and then went to breakfast, the inner house seating in house refectories in the Upper Building, the outer houses in their houses. [I also remember from that morning hearing Fr Paul, the Headmaster, as he celebrated Mass at the Lady Altar behind St Dunstan’s House – I can remember him saying aloud the only phrase of the Eucharistic Prayer or Canon as it was called which was then said aloud, just three words – all this while Mass was being celebrated in front of us at the High Altar]. We went in silence - it really was no speaking. When grace was said at breakfast, we were allowed to talk – until then, silence.  I cannot remember much about breakfast.

Just to go backwards a moment, I should add that the VI Form had a special privilege if they wished of going to an earlier Mass at 6.45am, called the VI Form Mass, and then they could work afterwards [The V Form could also do this in the Summer Term before exams] - in the Summer Term, those who went to this early Mass could go for a swim in the open swimming pool between the two cricket pavilions, a completely unsupervised swim except by monitors.

After breakfast, we returned to the dormitory to make our beds. We could never talk in the dormitory and we could not return the dormitory during the day except with permission, except to change for games or CCF. 

Then at 8.40am we all assembled, every morning, in the Big Passage, in alabectic order of houses and a space on the east side for a passage where the House monitors stood.  The Headmaster, Fr Paul Nevill, came to the top of the steps, and the School Monitors [I don’t think the term Shackies had been invented] walked down the side.  Fr Paul now said prayers, turning and kneeling as everyone did, as we prayed to the Holy Spirit to bless our studies.  Occasionally there were announcements, and I forget if these came before or after prayers. On this Monday morning, the 4th day of the Lent Term, Fr Paul told us we were to go the Theatre at 9pm, as he would be speaking to the school then, as he did at the beginning of every term. Fr Paul had been Headmaster for 30 years since December 1924.  Then we went to our lessons, three periods until break, which was between 11am and 11.25am.

In break we all did PT [Physical Training] -  taking off our jackets and doing exercises in different groups, some on the Ball Place, some on Theatre Square [never called that then], some above the Range, for 10 minutes, starting either 11.05am or 11.15am.  On this morning I was in the first group, and afterwards at 11.15am, I walked to the school shop [then near what is now St John’s Chapel] and up the stairs there to the Bookroom [ie Stationary Shop]. It was on those stairs that Fr Paul passed me that morning at 11.16am, going down the stairs on the way to see the sick boys in the infirmary, as he did every day [and he sent a postcard to all parents of sick boys every day - telephones were rare and no emails]. Then to more classes until lunch. At lunch, 1.10pm, our Housemaster called Fr Oswald [Fr Oswald Vanheems was Housemaster of St Dunstans for 33 years from 1935 to 1968] unusually came in slightly late and looked red in the face – there was a rumour that Fr Paul had died. And at the end of lunch Fr Oswald announced to us that Fr Paul had died.  He didn’t say much more, but in fact he had died alone in his study, now Nevill Room in St John’s, and his body had been carried along the front walk while we ate lunch. So we went out of lunch and came as we did every day at this time to visit the Blessed Sacrament as a House in the Abbey Church for 3 or 4 minutes, led by the monitors - the Housemaster did not come. It was just boys. 

We had to collect CCF uniforms after this for the term. CCF was voluntary and everyone did it, as you were not really allowed not to volunteer – it happened twice a week on Monday and Friday. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were games days. On Wednesday there was a half holiday from noon onwards and we could roam the countryside and then in the evening there was a film.

Later on this Monday, we had three more classes in the afternoon, from 4.15pm to 7.30pm – with a 17 minute [yes, 17 minutes] gap from 4.55 to 5.12pm for tea [Boys in St Thomas had to go there and back for tea].  Supper at 7.30pm.  Free time or Societies between 8pm and 9pm.  Fr Paul was dead, so we did not go to the Theatre [In fact next night, 26 January 1954, the Head Monitor, Miles Bellasis (W) summoned us to the Theatre and talked to the school, reading telegrams he had received from the Head Monitor of Downside about Fr Paul]. Prayers at 9pm – some nights we had Benediction in the Abbey and on Saturdays and Sundays all the school always had Benediction, on Saturday with Confessions, on Sunday with Vespers, Vespers in Latin. I never found the place for Vespers in all the years. Lights out in the dormitory was at 10pm and on the VI Form Gallery at 10.15pm – St. Dunstan’s VI Form Gallery was where the top floor of the refectories are now – that was out VI Form Rooms.     

Home