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Object No.13, ‘Half-holiday’, reminds us of more unhurried times. Taken in 1905, a period when the 'Box Brownie' was becoming affordable even to young boys, the photograph is from one of a unique collection of personal albums generously donated by OBs of the early twentieth century and held in the Photographic collection.
The photograph was exhibited in the Face to Face exhibition in June 2015, and chosen by visitors as their favourite of more than 40 pre-war Archive photographs. It is easy to see why it was so popular: away from the confines of school, the boys’ evident pleasure is timeless.
Strange to the modern eye is the fact that the boys are wearing uniform: it was an expected form of dress at the time and no alternative was allowed during term-time. Rules about wearing caps were especially strict, and boys had to obey social conventions of the time as well as school regulations.
For the boys in the photograph, any half-term was simply a marker in the calendar: there would be no half-term break during which they could go home. Especially prized for a boy in 1905, therefore, was the prospect of a ‘half-holiday’ or a ‘whole holiday’ during the term. In fact, the first half-term break (from Saturday to Tuesday) did not take place until the autumn term of 1965 and even then it was introduced merely as an experiment, albeit one that lasted until 1997 when the half-term break was first extended to a whole week in all three terms.
The time away from lessons on such days offered a chance to ‘escape’ the boundaries of school and boys would take advantage of the opportunity to venture outside the school gates to walk in the Beacons, explore further distances on bicycles - or go boating on the canal.
Sometimes half-holidays were given to mark a special event, such as a win in the annual cricket or rugby football match against Llandovery. More often they marked the achievement of a former pupil who had gained a professional or academic distinction. On less frequent occasions, a whole holiday was given to the school to mark a very special distinction, such as the knighthood of an Old Breconian. Whole holidays were also given on a Bank holiday weekend that fell during term time, including Easter.
In an extraordinary bundle of letters generously donated to the Archive by Major Philip Pritchard, the nephew of the writer, we can read of such an Easter weekend in school.
In his letter home of 30 March 1907, twelve-year-old ABG 'Basil' Biggerton-Evans (Hostel 1907-12) describes the feast he is anticipating for Easter Day. It seems as if it will be an especially welcome change to a ‘fasting’ routine of limited meals and hungry boys devouring eggs, which were “16 for a shilling”. Given a later comment in the letter, in which Basil asks for more tuck “or I shall be hungry”, his apparently enthusiastic reference to “ripping grub” should perhaps be interpreted as teenage sarcasm. And one can only imagine the advice given by an anxious mother about "getting out and on the train".
We had a whole hol on Good Friday with a chapel at 10.30 and 6-0 in the evening. We sang Stainer’s ‘Story of the Cross’ which was very pretty indeed. I can show it you when I bring my copy home. We fasted all day Good Friday.
Breakfast = Porridge and 1 hot cross bun
Dinner = 1 Poached egg and coffee
Tea = Boiled egg and Tea
Ripping grub wasn’t it. Eggs are 16 for a shilling in Brecon and the Hostel chaps gutted 10/- worth. Easter Day grub is always delicious I am told. Roast Beef and the like so I am anticipating a good dinner tomorrow. Fancy there are only ten more days. I have written to Miss Harries as you told me. Thank you very much for the rough copy. We have a Greek and Latin Examination every week. And that is the one to which I refer. I will remember what you told me about getting out and on the train and will be really most careful so you needn’t worry.
J R Atkin (School House 1879-1885) was appointed to the King’s Bench in 1913 and made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1919 as Baron Atkin of Aberdovey.
Though J R Atkin is well-known to law students as the main creator of the modern law of tort, he is well-known to generations of Old Breconians as one of the founders of the Old Breconian Association and a record holder of the highest number of runs (94) scored against a Llandovery College XI, a record he held for 44 years until 1929.
Just as important in the life of a schoolboy was that, called to the Bar in 1891, made King’s Counsel in 1907 and knighted in 1913, he was responsible for two half-holidays and a whole holiday!
The portrait of Lord Atkin (1948) by Edward Newling hangs in the Dining Hall. It was presented to the school by Old Breconians in the summer of 1949.
