SCH HM 08

Reference code

SCH HM 08

Title

Head Master: Boys Left

Level

Series

Date

1949 - 2010

Content description

Almost all this series relates to boys in some sort of trouble, including expulsions and withdrawals, although earlier files also include references for the services and occasionally other jobs. There are one or two letters on matters postdating a boy's Eton career, whether it was a successful one or not, but generally these too relate to problems. There are also papers relating to boys who died or committed suicide although other such boys had separate files in the filing system of the relevant Head Master; it is not clear on what basis the choice of where to place their records was made.

Arrangement

Records of boys leaving between 1977 and 1998 were transferred over several years in a number of overlapping files without any apparent order beyond a basic alphabetical arrangement within each individual file. Possibly the overlap was due to a file being mislaid, a new one opened, the original coming to light and items then being placed at random in either file. Brothers' files are often kept together. It may therefore be necessary to search in more than one place to find a particular boy. For boys who joined the school from 1998 onwards, a new system was adopted. Papers relating to all those boys in a particular intake are kept together, whether or not they stayed. Thus the file on 1998 new boys covers boys who left between 1999-2003. It would, however, be wise to check that some have not found their way into the old system's files.

From 2003 onwards, the files were again kept alphabetically, within groups of 10 years, and again whether the boy left or not. One of the files included a number of loose entry cards (basic details of the boy with a photo of him on his arrival) and also entry cards with record cards attached, but no correspondence. Although some of the entry cards had notes of disciplinary problems on them, others related to short-stay foreign students or even, in two cases, to Sixth Form Scholars. These two small groups have been separately catalogued.