Blasts from the Past: School Magazines

I recently attended a webinar in which one of the speakers described her experience of researching in archives: the messiness of it, the surprises, the people who pop up out of nowhere. All this, for her, was to be enjoyed. I could not agree more. One of the main pleasures for me of delving into archival material is the unexpected encounters with people and their lives. Which is probably why I love the school magazines. The reports of matches, of House games, of various clubs and societies – all conjure up a world that usually feels far closer than the dates would suggest. 

All to often, it is when I am looking for a specific piece of information that I stumble across a gem that I had no clue was there. Last week this happened to be a poem, reproduced in the magazine from December 1897 but written in 1874. An ode to Christmas written by Alfred Berlyn, a pupil in the Strand days who left the school in 1876 (he went on to become the dramatic critic for the National Observer, as well as a writer of plays and poems).

‘Work is o’er, and we are going 

Home to jollity and fun;

Pack away books, pens and papers,

For the term at length is done.’

Whilst some of the language of 150 years ago might not be that used today, the allusions to “detentions”, “Good Cards”, and a ‘long, long term’ still resonate. The last one, perhaps, most especially.

In 1945, emerging from the rigours of war, a Christmas Concert was held at the school. A highlight of this, according to the review in the school magazine, was Handel’s ‘And the Glory of the Lord’. Over the years, it has continued to be a feature of Christmases at King’s and will be sung at this year’s Christmas Concert at St James’ Piccadilly. There is always a red thread, connecting the past and the present and which, I am sure, will be carried through into the future.

Very excitingly, some of the past school magazines have been digitised and can be searched – or browsed at leisure – online. They can be accessed by anyone from the King's community who signs up to the new King's Association Hub (logged in users will automatically be logged into the Digital Archives website). Head to the Archive page and click on the link ‘Past Magazines’. To date, those from 1930 to 1950 and from 1965 to 1974 have been uploaded to the site; I am hoping that those from 1959 to 1964 will be added next year.

As ever, please do get in touch if you have stories to share: I can be contacted via email at archive@kcs.org.uk. 

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist