“To be a boy at one of these schools was to be both tyrant and slave.”
18th-century British public schools were meant to shape the leaders of empire—god-fearing, iron-willed, and unbreakable. But behind the ivy-covered walls lay something far darker.
These were pressure cookers of violence, chaos, and cruelty. Students rebelled with barricades and pistols. They took hostages, fought off armed militias, and assassinated the headmaster’s pets. Hazing rituals were brutal. Teaching was often appalling. And somehow, it was all called character building.
Even in the 20th century, little had changed. As late as 1979, one student was caned more than 630 times.
Keith knows this world intimately—because he lived it. At just nine years old, he was dropped at the headmaster’s office without warning, left to navigate a rigid, merciless system that hadn’t changed in centuries. What followed was a crash course in survival, tradition, and institutionalised cruelty.
In this searing episode, Keith peels back the curtain on Britain’s most elite and infamous schools—how they shaped boys into rulers, broke them in the process, and whether there’s any place left for them in today’s world.
This isn’t just history. It’s personal. And it’s time to talk.
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For books written and published by Keith Hocton
