This is the second in a series of blog posts about York St John’s male students through history. The first post, ‘Discipline and Defiance’ focused on the 19th and early 20th century, when students were subject to strict rules, while this post 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.
New freedoms and the impact of the World War Two
Times finally moved on at St John’s with the retirement of the strict Principal Walker, a.k.a. ‘Taggy’, and his replacement by Dr James Welch. The new Principal abolished the college’s old rules and asked the students to create a new constitution. More changes were to swiftly follow with the advent of the Second World War, when the college remained open to educate teachers, but took in additional students from London, Durham and Birmingham whose colleges had closed. During this time, social opportunities at the college thrived, with dances held every Saturday, organised by Joe Copping, a former student turned staff member. Toward the end of the war, the college acquired its first ever female member of staff, although it wouldn’t accept female pupils until the 1960s.
Letter from Charles Jenney (student 1937-9) with reminiscences of his time at college and of the war.
Charles Jenney, a student in the late 30s, describes the successful student government formed by the junior common room following Welch’s changes, and trips out to the theatre on free evenings. Women were invited to the college dances, mostly young teachers or probationer nurses, specially invited by Joe Copping, and any of his friends would go on to marry their dance partners. Jenney also recounts how Copping tragically lost his wife Marjory in wartime during a bombing raid in York. Despite this, he seems to have continued in his efforts to keep spirits up at the college and to help the students find love.
Letter from Denis A. Hartley (student 1943-5) with reminiscences of his time at college during the war.
Denis Hartley, a student towards the end of the war, also had a highly positive experience, describing York in those years as a ‘cosmopolitan place’, and recalling that: ‘On June 6, 1944, we stood in the College quad and watched huge numbers of planes flying overhead for hours – heading for the Normandy D-Day battlefront – and we felt lucky to be watching it all from the security of St John’s’. He also fondly remembers the dances, plays and musical circles that took place.
Autograph book (1952-1965) from Greenwoods (tea-room on Lord Mayor’s Walk, next to the snickle to St John’s car park) with signatures of patrons from St John’s College and some team photos. Donated by Peter Jones, Stokesley, 1994.
Post-war, St John’s College had an increasing number of students from overseas. In this autograph book from Greenwoods, a tea-room on Lord Mayor’s walk popular with students, messages written in Greek and in Arabic can be seen. As a consequence of growing freedoms and of the changing sensibilities of society, the religious convictions of many students decreased, with only about a quarter considering themselves active Christians by the 1960s. One signature thanks the café for providing them with an escape from Chapel Practice.
Changing attitudes to marriage and sex
Autograph album of Alfred Spruce with poems, drawings and dedications by fellow students (1883).
Although early St John’s students were forbidden from meeting women, they remained keenly interested in doing so. Here, in the autograph album of student Alfred Spruce, his friends write messages wishing him luck with finding a wife in future: ‘Out of a hundred young ladies… one makes a good wife. Hoping you will obtain “the one”’. In a humorous cartoon, another friend suggests that ‘honesty is the best policy’ with the story of Miss Lightfoot, who when asked to dance responds: ‘Thanks – no! My waistband is so tight I can’t move, and so are my shoes’, with her honest response winning the heart of her wealthy suitor.
Letter (1981) from Jim L. Kennedy (student 1934-1936) to John Addy, Archivist, with reminiscences of college life, in response to 1981 article in White Rose on ‘Discipline problems 1909-1929’.
Some students availed themselves of options other than marriage. A former student from the 30s, Jim Kennedy, wrote to our old archivist with observations on the college’s strict policy on female company: ‘To prohibit meetings was considered sensible but merely drove the liaisons into back alleys. Girls could, I suspect, look after themselves; some liaisons developed into marriages a few years later’. He notes that ’there were older women who sought out young men, not for their money for few had any, but for their youth and inexperience’ and also ‘there was some homosexuality’, noting that despite the law they were fairly tolerant of such things.
Hygiene exercise book of D. Ward (1947).
By the 1940s, as attitudes continued to shift, students at St John’s were learning how to provide sex education to their pupils. In this essay, student D. Ward argues that sex education is necessary, although perhaps not for the same reasons we would give today; he claims that it will reduce ‘homosexuality on the one hand and promiscuous intercourse on the other’. There is also an assumption that sex will take place within marriage, with lessons on marriage also being held at school, ‘to be taught if possible… by a married teacher who is both a parent and a Christian’.
Conclusions
Overall, the male students at St John’s College were treated more like naughty schoolboys than university students in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a strict routine and very limited freedoms. However, they found ways to rebel against these strictures and enjoy their time at college, whether it was by overindulging in alcohol or spending clandestine time with the opposite (or indeed the same) sex. From the 1930s, a release from these strict rules led to much greater freedom and enjoyment for students at St John’s, and even those present during wartime remembered their time at college fondly.
Sources consulted
McGregor, G. (2009) Life More Abundant: York St John University 1841-2008. York: Ebor Press.
