There has been much debate online, especially by those Members on Facebook, about the School Rules and when cap wearing was compulsory.
Adrian Taylor has helped us clarify this with this photo of the School Rules from 1959, 1961 and 1962.
The 1960s was a decade of significant change for Chatham House and as the decade came to a close caps were only a requirement for Years 1 & 2, the "Junior School", then finally being removed as a requirement shortly thereafter.
Jacko
Caps were definitely required for years 1 to 4 when I started in September 66, however the requirement was knocked back to years 1 and 2 only by the time I reached the 3rd year in 68, so I only suffered the dreaded cap thievery (especially by those ruffians at Dane Court if we gatecrashed their ‘private’ buses on Margate seafront) for a couple of years.
Old Boy
Hi Jacko.
I started CHS at the same time as you – in Normans under BK Debenham, and Mr. Mulliner as Head of the junior school. My name at that time was David Barke.
It wasn’t so much the wearing of the school cap that bothered me (although the thing that did bother me was the reaction from the inmates of Hereson Road school), it was the wearing of shorts during the first year.
Happy days.
RHGregory
I joined CHS in Sept 1971 when cap wearing was mandated for the Junior School. The following year we wore caps and the requirement was scrapped for the Sept 1973 intake onwards.
Headwear was changing and no longer a social requirement – though people remembering Mr Harold Millstead (Music) may recall that he wore a hat and EXPECTED lads who met him out of school to doff their headwear or touch their forehead!
Of course, the challenges of thinning hair and climate change now mean that its almost essential to go out with headwear, if not on the head, in the pocket.
Paul Weller
I still have my cap from 1966! As those who look at the Old Ruymians Facebook page might, in an entry on “cap wearing” accompanied by a picture, find that I explain that I still wear it (together with my other bit of remaining school uniform, a House Colours tie!) to parties where fancy dress is expected, with its last outing having been about a decade and a half ago at one of my daughters’ birthday parties where I was trying to look younger than I was!
Paul Weller
Correction to last message: from 1967!