This account offers more detail from the ‘Actual Experience’ letter and some conjecture about a girl’s caning.
I went to a LondonPublic School in the sixties where corporal punishment was widely practiced by a number of the masters. The PE master was a regular user of his size 10 plimsoll and a whacking from him was a painful affair. In addition to the Headmaster, two other masters used the cane as their only form of punishment, but they varied in method. There was nothing to suggest that the Headmaster or history master got any gratification from delivering beatings.
The music master was, however a completely different kettle of fish. Whilst it was suspected at the time, looking back it was clear he did get significant gratification from caning teenage boys. There was supporting evidence when it was discovered that he rarely entered details of the frequent punishments he administered in the secretary’s punishment book. If his urge got the better of him, he would select a boy on some pretext and take them to his separate room next door at the end of a lesson and give them the cane. Alternatively he would instruct a chosen boy to report back at 4pm after the end of lessons. In the middle school there were five separate years, each with three classes of around 25 boys. This meant he taught 375 boys twice a week, and it wasn’t difficult to find someone pretty much everyday to cane. It was not unusual for him to cane a boy after one of the lessons and have another seeing him after school.
Sometimes he caned boys for quite trivial offences and there was very few that evaded his cane during their five years of twice-weekly lessons. The canings he gave immediately after a lesson were relatively quick affairs as often there was another lesson waiting – it would be remove your jacket, drop your trousers and bend over before he delivered normally six strokes across the unfortunate boys underpants taking no more than 30 seconds. If the lesson was immediately before the morning or lunchtime break, he would take more time.
If a boy was told to report after school, it was often for a more serious offence and an all-together more serious caning. These sessions he dragged out and often made the boy completely undress below the waist. Once undressed he would lecture the boy who could easily be as old as sixteen taking time to study the unfortunate lad’s nudity. Then being told to bend over and touch his toes, he would wait a minute or so walking round looking at his bare bottom. Then he would line up the cane and deliver a fearsome stroke leaving an instant line of fire across the boy’s bottom, which in almost all cases would cause a loud grunt. Everyone knew that you had to stay bent over to avoid extra strokes, although the temptation to jump up was huge. These ‘after school’ canings were leisurely affairs and he left at least a minute between each stroke, savouring the experience for his own sexual gratification and walking around behind the boy between strokes looking at his bare bottom. After he finally delivered the sixth and final stroke, he would instruct the boy to remain in position as he took in the vista of a white bottom now with six red stripes – some boys reported that he touched their bottoms running his finger upwards over one of their cheeks feeling the weals. Eventually he would tell the boy to stand and he would continue the lecture taking the boy’s frontal nudity. Apparently very occasionally, a boy would have a slightly erect penis to add to his embarrassment. Eventually the boy would be told to dress and leave.
Changing for PE or swimming, it was normal for at least one boy in each class to have six stripes from a music master caning at any one time which they generally kept for well over a week. It was extraordinary that he was allowed to get away with it, and that other masters turned a blind eye to his activities. Indeed the PE master, himself a proficient user of the plimsoll, often mentioned to such a boy that he was sporting an impressive set of stripes. As the PE master did fill in the punishment book he must have known that the music master gave significantly more canings than were entered in the same book.
The above is based on my actual experiences.
Below is the description to an incident that did happen, but I have used a certain amount of imagination as the details were never known.
There was one very significant incident that happened after the music mistress at the nearby girls school suddenly died. There were a small number of 5th form girls that were studying for music exams and it was agreed that the music master would give them private tuition twice a week. After a few weeks, one of the girls was caught taking LP’s from the music library without permission and she was told to report to the music master after her next private tuition session, which was at the end of the school day. She was told that he had no alternative but to report her to the Headmistress of her school. The girl in question was certain that she would be suspended and possibly even expelled. The music master was into boys, not girls, and did not even contemplate corporal punishment. But the girl knew that he was a frequent user of the cane and asked what he would do if she had been a boy at the school. The music master hesitated before saying that stealing would be taken very seriously and the minimum would be a severe caning, but added that such a punishment was completely inappropriate. She told him that she would much prefer to be treated as if she was a boy. In truth he had absolutely no interest in caning the girl, but she persisted asking him to reconsider repeating that she would much prefer a caning to being reported to her Headmistress, knowing that it was her only chance of avoiding the disgrace of a suspension or even worse expulsion.
But then he changed his mind, looking at the girl who had quite short hair and was probably a bit of a tom-boy, it occurred to him that if he could pretend that she was actually a choirboy it might work for both of them. But despite taking all sorts of liberties with boys at the school, he knew there was a much higher risk caning a girl that was not a pupil of the school and decided to tell her that he would only consider her request if she put her request in writing. Clutching at this offer, she immediately agreed and had soon written out her request.
He then told her that she would receive her caning immediately and it would identical to how a male pupil would be treated which would be six strokes to her bare bottom and that she should take her blazer off and everything below the waist. She had heard rumours that he caned boys on the bare bottom, so was not surprised and she showed no particular embarrassment as she undressed and was soon taking her pants off – just being relieved that she was not going to be reported. She was told to bend over and touch her toes and stay in position. Her bare bottom was quite slim and the music master imagined that in fact she was a choirboy and not a sixteen-year-old girl. She had not given much thought to the actual caning and was very shocked about how painful the first stroke was as it hit home across the middle of her bottom. He caned her as if she was a boy, hard and slow with each stroke causing an anguished gasp. There was at least a minute between each stroke and after the sixth whack she had been bending over for more than six minutes and was told to stay in position as he walked behind her taking in the vista of her ‘choirboy like’ bottom.
Patrick