Talk:Greyfriars School

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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

If contributors want to write about this topic can they do so in the appropriate page.

There were around 2000 school stories about Greyfriars; and from what I can make out, only a brief reference in one LONE story - yet someone seems to think that the entire detail of that story should be included in this article. If this approach was taken with the school stories, it would be the longest article in in Wikipedia.

--John Price (talk) 08:59, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Sixth Form: Reginald Coker

"Coker, Reginald (Minor) - Younger brother of Horace Coker of the Fifth form. Introduced in Magnet #241 - Coker Minor - Sixth Former (1912)." Can anyone explain how someone in the Sixth Form, made up of the oldest boys in the school, can be the youngest brother of a boy in the Fifth Form? Robocon1 (talk) 10:38, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

This is due to the almost incredible stupidity of Horace Coker, who only managed to move up from the Shell through his Aunt Judy's influence. As he is doomed never to meet the academic standards of the 6th form, he is doomed to remain in the 5th. His younger brother, on the other hand was very smart and a home tutor had educated him to sixth form level. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Struman (talk • contribs) 16:13, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

Strange

A British comic, issues are dated using American style, with the month first, like May 21. The school is set close to the coast in Kent and in the first hundred issues, there is a good sized mountain nearby, but none in Kent. Also there is a school for "aliens" (mostly French and Germans) built next door to Greyfriars, which is quickly forgotten. The pupils all call each other by surnames and not first names, even hardly ever amongst friends. There is virtually no name calling and even the worst characters hesitate to tell a lie (Bunter being the exception and only because of his utter stupidity). Issue #169 ends with Bulstrode (the bully) as the most despised person in school after a vicious attack on weedy Alonzo Todd. Yet in the next issue which would have taken place very soon afterwards, possibly days, the Remove elects Bulstrode as form captain.

I may be mistaken, but I thought the school for aliens merged with Greyfriars early on. Did Herr Gans come from there? Struman (talk) 11:29, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Magnet #173 and #174 (1911) had Bob Cherry expelled because it was believed that he had stolen a ten shilling (fifty pence) postal order (he was framed by Esau Heath, a really spiteful boy). Bunter could have saved Cherry, having proof against Heath but instead chose to blackmail Heath for money to spend on food. When it all came out, Bunter was not expelled, but was flogged. Yet in Magnet #177 which would have been a few weeks later, school time, Bunter first steals £2 (a large sum in those days) from Bulstrode's clothing then is caught by Wingate, stealing £4-£5 from John Bull's clothing. Bunter tells his stupid lies, admitting it and denying it and Wingate marches him off to the headmaster. Surely, even without his earlier blackmail, Bunter could be seen as a thoroughly bad character and expelled? Yet in the next issue, #178 (1911), Bunter is still at school as though nothing had happened. (84.236.152.71 (talk) 21:47, 31 May 2015 (UTC))

A horror story

Maybe the only horror story that Hamilton wrote and a good one, Magnet #239 (September 7, 1912) has "the Famous Four" trapped on a grounded passenger steamer ship with a hideous horror. The lifeboats and life jackets are all there but no one else is aboard. What happened to the passengers and crew was so bad that it had six tough men trying to gain salavage rights to the ship, run in terror from it. The thing is finally killed and the four boys get the salvage money from the ship, which even after giving some to their rescuers would have been thousands of pounds. In #240, it is revealed that the money would be invested for the four boy's futures. (80.31.144.16 (talk) 18:29, 6 October 2015 (UTC))

A glimpse into the future

Magnet #359 (Dec 26, 1914) and #360 (Jan 2, 1915) had a short two part story where the Famous Five realise they have been at school for six years since 1908 and not gotten any older. Nugent wonders if they will ever leave the Remove, while Cherry wonders if they will ever grow any older? They go to see an Egyptian Seer (Ahmees) in Courtfield who with a magic mirror shows them some views of the future, of them and other Remove boys as old men. Later the Egyptian disappears and they go back to Greyfriars for a feed. Possibly this story was to settle things for Magnet readers, that Greyfriars would remain unchanged for as long as readers wanted it (but not allowing for paper shortages).(5.8.187.14 (talk) 14:42, 24 November 2016 (UTC))

Religion

Issue #400 (Oct 9, 1915) has a strong religious theme. Dr Locke (whose doctorate is in religion) demands that all pupils attend church 3 times on a Sunday and some Removites rebel, but they are mostly the bad lads, the cads and such: Skinner, Snoop, Fish, Bunter, etc. They are seen as unmanly and not playing the game as they are bullied and punished by Cherry, Linley, the Head, Mr Quelch and others for horror of horrors, being atheists (though they call themselves Pagans). As they follow the rocky path, Cherry breaks up a Sabbath football game between them and Vernon Smith threatens to sneak on them. But at the end, they all see the light and become good little christians and are forgiven.(5.8.187.247 (talk) 16:01, 21 May 2017 (UTC))

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Hurree Jamset Ram Singh speech

In "The Greyfriars Gallery" series in 1917, it is suggested that his peculiar way of speaking is a deliberate affectation as Indians (Sikhs) do not talk like that. It may be, as in Singapore in 1986, I booked a trip with a travel agent and she kept adding "la" onto the ends of words, which I was told some Singaporean people did. This is echoed in Magnet #514 where it is said (page 12) that in his acute anxiety, he forgot (to speak) his weird and wonderful English. (184.22.96.206 (talk) 12:43, 28 February 2018 (UTC))

World War 1

Hamilton liked using the trick of saving someone's life as a way of resolving otherwise impossible difficulties, where enemies could suddenly become friends again. In 1917, people beyond the pale in his stories; like Snoop's criminal father, also a forger and thief, and others could gain redemption by joining the army and fighting for their country, so making up for all the bad things they had done. Hamilton was keen on people of conscription age (single men 18-40), joining up to fight "The Huns". More so when he reached his 41st birthday in August 1917, so could no longer be called up himself.(184.22.96.206 (talk) 12:43, 28 February 2018 (UTC))

Tom Redwing

His fisherman father having been killed at sea by a German sub two years earlier (1916), Redwing does jobs to get money. Returning from one, in a train he meets Leonard Clavering who is destined for Greyfriars school, who instead wants to join up and fight Huns. They swap places and Redwing goes to school under the name of Clavering (Magnet 517 and not #518 as in the main article). He is eventually found out thanks to Skinner's spying and leaves Greyfriars in issue 522. Magnet 530, Redwing makes an effort to return, having refused to allow Vernon Smith's father to pay his fees, for saving his son's life (issue 517). In issue 533, thanks to tutoring from Mr Quelch, he wins a scholarship so returns under his own right as a pupil at Greyfriars.(185.181.236.222 (talk) 12:18, 23 April 2018 (UTC))

The death of Arthur Courtney

Magnet 520 (1918), written by substitute author, John Nix Pentelow. Wastrel Rupert Valance of the Greyfriars sixth has forged a cheque to pay off a gambling debt and breaks into the Cross Keys Inn at night to get it back before he is sacked from school. Courtney (good guy and close friend of Wingate) goes after him to try and stop him, because he is in love with Valance's sister, Violet. There is a zeppelin bombing raid on Friardale and the Cross Keys Inn is hit and on fire. Courtney rushes in to rescue Rupert Valance and finds him tied to a bed (he was caught breaking in). He drags him out of the burning room but the stairs collapse as he goes down them and Valance falls on top of him. Both are rescued by Wingate and the Famous Five but Courtney is terribly injured and thinks his back is broken. He dies, and Valance, realising that it is all his fault runs away and is not seen again. Violet dies a few months later (broken heart?).(185.181.236.222 (talk) 19:26, 30 April 2018 (UTC))

The First Form

It sometimes existed and sometimes not.In five stories by George R Samways (issues 731 to 735, 1922) Wally Bunter is brought in to teach the First Form as a master.He has a rocky time of it before everything works out well, and is still the master at the end of this story arc. (188.79.45.40 (talk) 18:05, 8 April 2022 (UTC))