Because it is the most important model for Bonkers Hall, I have long taken an interest in Nevill Holt Hall. It has latterly been the home of David Ross, founder of the Carphone Warehouse and prominent supporter of David Cameron, but it has had a long and colourful history.It was for centuries the home of the prominent Catholic Nevill family and belonged to the Cunard family between 1876 and 1912. Sir Bache Cunard, who devoted his time to hunting and metalwork rather than the family shipping line, is one of the models for Lord Bonkers whom I discovered long after I started writing his diaries, while his daughter Nancy Cunard was quite a girl.
But for most of the 20th century Nevill Holt was known as a boys' prep school which had strong connections with the public school at Uppingham. Wikipedia will tell you that the school closed in 1998 "because of falling rolls", but it doesn't tell you why those rolls were falling.
Because Nevill Holt school was the scene of a child abuse scandal. An article from the Birmingham Post dated 23 June 1998 tells the story:
A second master who faced charges took his own life, but that story seems to have disappeared from the net. (Later. I have now found the story. Note that coroner was a Symington - presumbaly one of the local soup and corset dynasty.)A former preparatory school teacher who subjected six schoolboys in his care to a catalogue of "degrading and perverted" sexual abuse was yesterday jailed for 10 years.
Edmund Clements (59) abused the boys, then aged between eight and 12, from 1974 to 1984, Leicester Crown Court was told.
The abuse took place while he was a geography master at the Nevill Holt Prep School, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter De Mille told Clements, a married man, of Hove, Sussex, that he had committed a "gross breach of trust" and selected at least two of his victims because they were particularly vulnerable.
The judge added that Clements, who admitted 33 sex offences against the six boys, had subjected his victims to "what any right-minded person would regard as degrading and perverted behaviour".
There is, however, a posting (#115) on a Facebook group devoted to "Your Boarding School's Best Scandal" which describes events at Nevill Holt (perhaps a little colourfully):
1. Police storm the school one morning with cars, vans and even helicopters.All very remarkable, but my real reason for writing this post is another recent discovery. Because for most of its history the school was owned and run by the Phillips family.
2. Teacher jumps out the window of breakfast when he's told they have arrived.
3. Hangs himself in the school grounds.
4. School shuts down the following and the manager of the Carphone Warehouse buys it.
5. Coffins found behind the panelling in the girls' dormitories.
This was obviously the biggest scandal, but there were hundreds of others.
Which makes this 2003 article from the Times Educational Supplement intriguing:
And Phillips' daughterA headteacher who faked his name, age and qualifications to run a boarding school in Leicestershire for 40 years has been exposed as a fraud by his son.
Frederick Phillips cheated parents, pupils and his bank manager into believing he was a qualified French teacher and aristocrat with military honours in order to buy and run Nevill Holt preparatory school in Market Harborough. He died in 1982 ...Swansea-born Frederick Phillips changed his accent and pretended he was a graduate from the Sorbonne to get a job teaching French at Nevill Holt.
He had, in fact, only attended summer school at Besancon university, France.
In 1927 he adopted the double-barrelled name Serille-Phillips and claimed he was the son of a gentleman (his father was a wheelwright) to secure a bank loan of £12,000 to buy the Grade I listed 13th century school building.
He said he was 30, to substantiate a lie that he was a former squadron leader, secret service agent and medal-winner in the First World War. In fact, he had only just completed his military training at Uxbridge.
Bonkers Hall has enjoyed a colourful history, but it is not a patch on the real thing.recalls her father giving her the answers in advance of a scholarship entrance exam for a girls' school in Oxford.
She said: "I have no proof but I wonder if he did this for other pupils.
27 comments:
Did Nevill Holt have its own railway station? If so, was it called Nevill Holt Halt?
There is no station, but if you visit the farm shop in Market Harborough you can purchase a fine whisky, Nevill Holt Malt.
Presumably this whisky is matured in the Nevill Holt Vault.
Indeed it is.
Only now I learn that I was cheated out of a proper education by Frederick Serille-Phillips. I was at Nevill Holt from 1956 to 1961 (or thereabouts). I don't know where he got some the masters from, but they were not all competent teachers. I am staggered to learn that Phillips was such a fraudster.
Who are you Jonathan Calder? Reading this article makes me think you're a very strange person who has very odd thoughts and views! Perhaps you should take a moment to think of those people that had a very happy childhood at Nevill Holt and who would rather not have some random man commenting like this. Do you have nothing better to do?
Hmmmmm. I was there up to 1960 and never got my confiscated knives back.
I remember E.E.C. coming down in the evenings. He always seemed to stagger a bit at that time of day.
Matron with her starched uniforms left me with a permanently trained ear for that rustle. F.S.P. was a nasty piece of work and his kids outed him!!!
My life became better when I left.
I was at NH '71-'78. I was taught by Clements & Copas (who killed himself); I remember Copas as a kindly Christan man, and Clements as a short-tempered atheist (who conveniently "found God" after his arrest) who was a b*****d to the kids, though not actually violent. It was an odd place, though really not unpleasant.
I was at Neville Holt from 1989-1994 and I loved the place,!.. i cant believe the teacher in the scandal hung him self, i never thought of some one with his teaching skills and personality would be involved in such a thing, I new him very very well and spent allot of time with him and had no sense of funny goings on at all!!, he was so helpful in life, I still use his skills to this day that he tougt me. As for all the other fraud scandals I just been reading about, they have just cracked me up, the Phillips blagging his way through to be a teacher, I always thought these so called hight and mighty ponce had some thing going on in there past hahah!, that made my day ! Amazing. As for Clemants why only ten years the sick bastard!! I remember him total dick, if I'd known then I would have given him even more shit then than I did, prick!.... But all in all I had some of the best memories of my life at that place, I still keep in touch with people to this day form there. Shame its not still a school it could have given allot of kids good opportunities.
I was at NH between 76' and 81, i think Matty Weir must have a selective memory if he thinks Clements was never violent. I remember boys getting seven bells knocked out of them in geography lessons, thrown down staircases etc on one occasion a boy in the year above me got a standing ovation after Clements had left the room having knocked him senseless but not made him cry !! Never really got on with Copas so wouldn't comment. Hilarious about Phillips family, always thought they were frauds !!
I was a pupil there from 1966 -71. It was such a different world back then. Archaic rules, rather frightening and forbidding architecture, eccentric characters, very male dominated except for some very sweet young female art teachers and (for a brief interlude), a pretty Irish nurse. Looking back, the quality of the education was very good but much of it was lost on me at the time. I was too 'immature' to appreciate it then. But I certainly remember Mr Copas as a very inspiring English teacher. From what I can gather many of the pupils, including myself went on to achieve good things in their lives.
Although it may or may not have been a particularly ideal school for me personally I am grateful for the experience and the many opportunities it gave me.
For all of your information, Edmund Clemants is now living in a flat in EASTBOURNE town centre! He is a physco and has lost the plot completely.
Who is "Edmund Clemants" and what is a "physco"
I worked at Nevill Holt between 1990 & 92. I remember all the staff - David Phillips and his rags to riches wife Nina. I also remember the Woolies who took over running the school in 1991. Mr Wooley always gave me the creeps with his suggestive comments. Im not suprised by the scandal really about the perverts there, I just feel sorry for the children that suffered unbeknown to anyone. However, its a beautiful place and I have fond memories too. Why do you have such an interest JOnathan
I was there 74-77 remember Clements was bad tempered and shifty in extreme i got on with Copas remember going on school skiing trip with him and Deaso Where does Bonkers Hall come into it?
As I say at the start, I have come to regard Nevill Holt as the model for Bonkers Hall. So I take an interest in its history - the Cunards and David Ross as well as the school.
More on Lords Bonkers and his home here and here.
This was a school which would be impossible to imagine these days. Clements was a split personality type who could be pleasant one minute and violent the next. Fortunately I was warned not to accept any invitations for special tuition... Copas - I don't have the same rosy memories as others as he raped me. I'd also condemn anyone who taught there during that period since in a school that size they must have known what was going on. Nevill Holt is a place best forgotten.
I was at Nevill Holt from 86-92 and I have nothing but fond memories of the school. Whilst there were a few teachers who scared me a little I always found the Phillips's and Mr Copas to be really nice people. Whilst there may have been scandals at the school (I certainly wasn't aware of any at the time), most of the teachers were very good and a lot of us left there with a very good education.
I was a pupil at Nevill Holt from 1994-98 when it closed down and I witnessed first hand the horrific ending. I clearly remember the day the police came and Mr Copas ran out of breakfast and when they found his body hung in the nearby forest. I even had to go to his funeral in the chapel. This was horrific for all children involved, I was 8 at the time and was so confused and upset I was excused from class for the rest of the day.
The terrible things that went on at that school truely disturbed me and still haunt me now. I was incredibly unhappy at that school. I was sexually abused by my music teacher and when my parents complained, nothing was done about it. A school that size (only 100 pupils at the end) everyone must have been aware of what was going on...it utterly disgusts me I had to go through that and others did before me.
Mr Copas' funeral wasn't in the chapel... I should know, I was also a student in the final years of the school.
Since the dead cannot defend themselves, I have to wonder about the validity of the claim that he took part in the abuse.
You see, the Copas I remember was very much the heart of that school - unlike several of his colleagues who could have done with some anger management classes, however efficient they were in their fields. Mr Copas was a leader, a mentor and great English teacher - a source of comfort to many students in a rather gothic and isolated climate.
It's surreal to identify him with the darker aspects of that place, since he lives on in my memory with some of the most positive and inspiring.
Like 'Anonymous' who posted on 16 March last year, I was also a pupil at NH from '86 - '91. Overall, I enjoyed my time there, but as I get older I have to think that much of that was down to age and naivety, and not knowing anything different. I don't believe it would be possible for a school to be run that way today, and that's undoubtedly a good thing. It was a pretty mercilees environment for some, particularly the more vulnerable puils (of which, fortunately, I wasn't one). David Philips either chose to ignore the behaviour of some of his staff or otherwise didn't know it was occuring. Either way, he's guilty of a gross abuse of trust in my opinion. If I was ever to cross paths with him, I would say the same to his face. As for Clements and Copas, Clements was a violent and spiteful man, full stop. I was lucky not to be on the end of his temper but I remember plenty who were. He would regularly reduce classmates to tears and would do the same at night time when doing the dorm rounds with an equally mean spirited and vindictive matron called Miss Macdonald (remember her..?). Sadly, it didn't surprise me at all when he was later outed as a paedophile (one of the boys he abused was in my year and the police rang me to ask if I could provide corroborating evidence).
I find it very hard to reconcile the Copas I remember (kindly, caring, pretty much everything that was good about the school came from him) with some of the comments/innuendo I've read. My guess is that he wasn't a participant in any of the abuse but was aware of it and said nothing, as a (wholly misguided) way of protecting the school's reputation. For those who did suffer abuse, I have the utmost sympathy. Hopefully the rest of us can continue to use our experiences there (good and bad) to shape the way we live our lives, and to ensure we protect our own children in a way our parents perhaps didn't us.
Even after reading some of the comments posted quite a while after the one I made, I still think NH and the education it provided was very good. From today's perspective life there as it was back in the sixties/early seventies is bound to seem rather odd and peculiar. But there's never been any doubt in my own mind that the headmaster and the overwhelming majority of the staff were decent and caring people.
As Stephen Fry would say: "autre temps autres mœurs."
But for the tragic events described, combined with the ever present economic pressures, I believe the school would have continued with the process of modernization that similar prep schools have been doing since.
Me again! I also think it very unfair to blame the head, other staff, parents etc. They were all let down it seems by just one particular individual who had betrayed the trust bestowed upon him. In the end he was punished for it.
I went to Nevill Holt between 1966 and 1971, a strange transition time between old Mr Phillips and young Mr Phillips.
Old Mr Phillips was a stickler for discipline and rules, in my 1st term at school I remember the school rules being read out on our 1st evening. There were over 100, and more were added each term. There were very specific, including things like 'no running on the gravel', 'no throwing tennis balls onto the roof'. When young Mr Phillips took over the rules were altered and we ended up with 10 or 12, the last of which was "No anti-social behaviour' - which had to be explained to us.
I remember Mr Copas arriving at the school, but there wasn't any trouble with him from what I knew, unlike the geography teacher, who was made to leave the school after an incident.
There was Mr Cooke with his wooden leg (a limp!) Mr Lanyon with his external bag for wee, Mr Moorhouse and his treats for boys - CDMs given out to the quieter, prettier ones...
I remember the pretty female art teacher and also the irish nurse. I think she was the sister of a Man United footballer - at least that was the rumour. One of my friends tried the trick of putting a mirror on the floor to see up her skirt whilst we were having our malt extracts.
In the first years we used to go on walks - in a crocodile down the country roads, all in uniform. One year the queen was visiting many areas of the country and we all got dressed up in our white, blue and purple blazers and crocodiled off to the main road to Uppingham to see her. The cars shot past at about 50 so that was a glorious waste of time!
Iwas a pupil at this school from about 70 to 75.
It was a bastard of a place. Phillips was a real piece of work, and that French bastard Draggy abused me for years.
I always found Coppas to be quite nice, and Deaso was OK with me.
As for all the others it was completely mad.
Recently had a look on facebbok, and found a site about old schools, with a couple of familiar names talk about history!
I was a pupil at NH from 84-88. It was probably the best school I ever went to - although at the time i used to do as much as possible to break the rules and thus was caned almost every week!! Thankfully all the paedo stuff that happened, passed me by without a thought. I did however receive several phone calls from the police when this all went public asking if i had been abused as apparently my name 'kept coming up' in the investigation. Anyway, Clements was a total cunt...he threw me across the room a couple of times and was generally very unpleasant, and very glad he got punished, although in my opinion he should have been castrated and had his knees blown away!!! Copas however, seemed like a total gent. Can't believe he was actually involved in the abuse personally!!! My sympathy goes out to all the kids who were abused, and trust that they have not let a total scumbag ruin their lives completely. Live long. Peace.
Does anyone else remember when someone ran away (he managed to get about ten miles before being picked up) then told Griz why he ran away and a couple of days later Griz had the all the boarders line up in the Old Library while the local plod came round to tell us all off. I think it would have been early 80s.
Seems even more odd now than it did then!
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