1941: On this day, 814 20-year-old city girls responded to their call-up papers - although some forgot their registration card! Many of the girls had come with their mothers, while others had their boyfriends for company. Some are described as arriving 'with an army escort on either side'. Quite a few perambulators are also recorded as being parked outside the building. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
Some of the scholars at the Cathedral (King's) School provided such a competent performance to their audience, that it received a mention in the Stamford Mercury. The boys recited classical texts from Livy, Virgil, Shakespeare, Addison, Grey and many others and were met by a 'unanimous though discriminating applause'.
At the time, the fees for boys at the school were 30 guineas for boys of 12 and under, increasing to 35 guineas for the older boys. That did not include the cost of a laundress which added an additional 2 guineas per year to their fees, as well as the entrance cost of another 2 guineas.
One would hope that for 39 guineas the boys would be getting a first class education, which the article suggests they were.
References
Stamford Mercury, December 20 1822, p. 3.
Stamford Mercury, December 27 1822, p. 1.
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