DAYS AT GIRL & HIGH (1): Drill with Captain Farthing

Press, 27 August 1977, Page 16

DAYS AT GIRL & HIGH (1): Drill with Captain Farthing

On our first day at high school, after our tests, we were taken round the school and met various people, including Captain Farthing, the drill instructor. Later, we had to write a composition about our first day at school. I finished mine by saying we had met Captain Farthing, and I thought him the most peculiar man I had ever met. After reading it over, I decided that that remark was a bit tactless, and hastily set to work to copy out my essay. But alas, there was not time, and I had to hand it in, offending sentence and all, though I did score out that bit. However, when Miss Magdalen Hall handed it back some time later, she made only a very mild comment. 1 could have said instead that Captain Farthing was a short, rather slightlybuilt man, very erect, with a strong, carrying voice. He told us what we were to wear for drill. A woollen singlet and no tight corsets were prescribed, but as we had to drill in our full uniform, including hats and heavy shoes, it seemed a bit pointless to tell us anything.

He came only on certain days; on other days he days he went to RangiRura, and perhaps to other schools. We were drilled in large groups, all the first years together, and so on. We lined up in forms, in

sizes. Then we would number one-two, one-two; form two ranks, one, one-two; form fours; form two deep; march in fours. It was high praise one day to our form when “Five Lower is moving like a machine.” We spaced out, fingertips of outstretched arms nearly touching those of the next girl, and did formal exercises, arm bending and stretching, head rolling, lunging, knee bending and stretching, touching toes, trunk bending.

At every lesson the roll had to be marked, and as he did not know the girls’ names, Captain Farthing had a roll-caller, who would report to him each time a girl answered to her ‘ name. For our classes he used twins, Iris and May. He would ask, “Are you May-Irish or Irish-May?” Sometimes, after the command to stand easy, he would simply say “Come along the roll-caller.” At other times he would give a long string of military titles, ending with the words “of the forces.” We had our own theories about the cause of the latter moods. Sometimes, on such occasions, his language, while quite printable, was offensive to some of his hearers. My sister, who was tall and solidly-built, hated it so much that she became adept at finding excuses on drill days, though the only one of his remarks that she can now remember is that her feet and stomach would come round a corner long before the rest of her. The most hated time was early drill. This was in the

second part of the long lunch-time, and one's movements and errors, and what Captain Farthing said, were heard not only by the drill squad but by all the girls watching the show. I wrote for the school magazine some long verses, finishing up, "But early drill, it really spoils the day.” And it did. too.

When drill was in the area between the main building and the lunch room. Captain Farthing’s voice, with the brick walls as sounding boards, could be heard clearly in the science lab and some of the other rooms. Counting for marching, for instance, went “One, two, sree, fo’, one, two, sree, fo,” on and on. (The o of fo’ is like the o in “hot.”) At times, one girl in each squad played the piano instead of doing drill. How lucky she was, we thought. But I suppose she had to work pretty hard, for she would be kept at it for the whole period. The culmination of drill for the year was drill inspection, held at school if fine and in the barracks if

wet. At least one Army officer, sometimes a colonel, was the judge, walking through the lines of girls as they performed their exercises or stood at attention, heels together, feet making an angle of about 45 degrees. From each squad, nine girls were selected to parade again for judging of the final winners.

In 1927, Captain Farthing’s last year at G.H.S., our form had drill with two different groups, with different exercises. This could be confusing. As ill luck would have it, the numbering brought me into the middle of the front row at the drill inspection, and I made a mistake. This brought the full force of Captain Farthing’s tongue (though he did avoid nis more choice expressions), and made me shake with nervousness even more than before.

What a change when, in 1928. we had a woman for drill. No hats, no forming fours, sandshoes instead of walking shoes, only one or two clases at a time, and, best of all, no early drill.

The Christchurch Girls’High School is preparing to celebrate its centenary. j UNA DROMGOOLE, of Christchurch, recalls her own days at the school in the 19205.