Following my International Women’s Day post on our female students last year, I thought I’d write next about the contrasting experience of the male students. From the original founding of the York Diocesan Training College in the 1840s, men and women students were educated separately and had very different experiences. In cataloguing donations made by former students at the men-only St John’s College York, I found many fascinating artefacts which illuminated the lives of our male students. These will be available to view on a display taking place in the library from Monday 14th-Friday 25th November, to coincide with International Men’s Day. This is the first of two blog posts on the male students. This post, ‘Discipline and Defiance’, will focus on the 19th and early 20th century, while the second post, ‘Freedom, Fighting and Fornication’, will discuss the new freedoms gained from the 1930s onwards, the effect of the Second World War and changing attitudes to sex and marriage through the college’s history.
The early years
When YSJ’s antecedent organisation, the York Diocesan Training College, was first founded, male students were unquestionably treated better than the female students, and could expect to earn better salaries once they became practising teachers. When premises in Monkgate were deemed unsuitable for the men, new premises were built for them at Lord Mayor’s Walk, while the women were moved into the old accommodation! That’s not to say that the men students were having a wonderful time – they had to follow an exacting timetable similar to the women, though with more focus on maths and science subjects.
In 1871, funding for colleges was separated, with York Diocese thereafter funding the men’s college and Ripon Diocese the women’s college. It seems this divide was beneficial to the women students; they ended up with more teaching staff, and by the end of the century, they consistently outperformed the men in exams. As discussed in my earlier post, the female students gained new freedoms and better quality teaching in the 1890s under a new principal. Meanwhile, the men’s college continued with the old regime of strict timetables, rote learning and very limited autonomy. Students were not allowed into York in their limited free time, and were forbidden to meet women or even to talk to the female servants. Few sporting activities were available till the 1890s. With little else to entertain them, students resorted to minor rebellions and schoolboy pranks…
Diary of William Holmes, 1892-3
In his diary written in the early 1890s, student William Holmes describes his two years of study at the college. In this entry, he recounts an April Fools’ prank played on another student. He asked his friend to wake him up early for their morning chores, but actually sent him to the master’s room, with instructions to knock as loudly as possible as he is a deep sleeper.
The early 20th century – discipline and defiance
We might associate this approach to education with the Victorian period. But in fact, the college’s stance on discipline endured well into the new century. In 1908, Principal Walker – nicknamed ‘Taggy’ by his students – was appointed and would remain in charge until 1935. Under his remit, the strictures of the previous century remained in place, in defiance of changing social attitudes. By the 1920s, students who had fought in the First World War, and were often well into their twenties, rebelled against being treated like schoolboys.
College Songs and College ‘Yell’, donated by W. G. Franklin (student 1926-8)
In this copy of the college song we from the 1920s we can see the resentment of the disciplinary regime, with a verse lamenting: “When this bleeding term is over, Oh! How happy we shall be! No more early morning rising, No more asking for a pass, You can tell that beggar Taggy To shove his passes_ _ _’
Letter from William Gordon Franklin (student 1926-8) with reminiscences of his time at college.
In this letter, William Franklin reminisces about his time at college in the 1920s, when drinking to excess by students was still strictly prohibited. He recalls: ‘A certain student showed signs of this [over-imbibing] and Taggy asked him if his parents were aware of this bad habit whereupon he replied that they kept a public house.’
Next week, in Part 2 of this blog post, we’ll look at the changes that took place at St John’s College after ‘Taggy’ finally left and a new Principal arrived to bring the college fully into the 20th century. In the meantime, you can see the full archive display on the Ground Floor of the library, based in Fountains Learning Centre.
