HERITAGE It’s all in the Head Prefect’s Book
A College tradition probably known only to Head Prefects, is the Head Prefect’s Book. Volume One – which is now in the College archives – began in 1953, and the annual additions by subsequent Head Prefects have continued ever since. The Prefect’s Book has an even longer prehistory. According to Stanley Scott Ick- Hewins (3001), who was secretary of the Games Committee in 1921, the idea of handing on knowledge
from secretary to secretary came from Old Boy John Geoffrey Denniston (1990), who returned to College as an English master in 1912 and again from 1919–1923. In 1944, Head Prefect Edward Millais Harcourt (4957) decided “it would serve a more useful purpose as a Head Prefect’s Book” – and so the book continued. By 1953 the book, which had served so well from 1921–1953, had fallen into disrepair and it was decided “to transfer the recordings as from 1944, the date of its new ‘christening’, into a new book of a more permanent nature so that this would be solely
a Head Prefect’s Book unmarred by obsolete records of the Games Committee.” Based on the handwriting, Henry Richard Carver (5649) transcribed the contents until his own 1953 report, indicating each year which of the previous Head Prefects had provided the valuable information – data which included everything from how the College dance should be run, to the role of the Head Prefect on Sports Day. From 1954 onwards, each Head Prefect recorded the practical day- to-day jobs which were part of his brief.
Christ’s College Canterbury
82
Made with FlippingBook Annual report