Old Princethorpians

Throughout the 70s and 80s there was a very significant number of boys who came to board at Princethorpe from their native Hong Kong.

The boys, often as young as 11 and some with little or no English, were sent to the UK to pursue a 'prized British education' and the doors it would open to British universities. Many of the boys' parents were employees of the Hong Kong Government, there were a fair few sons of policemen and fire officers, with their fees subsidised by their employer.

For these often reluctant young boarders thousands of miles from home, Princethorpe was to become their adopted home for as much as seven years in some cases. Out of the 200 or so boarders at Princethope, between 20 and 30 were Hong Kong Chinese.

Comments, teacher Alex Darkes, "The Hong pupils were characterised by their intellectual rigour, they were focused, hard working and meticulously neat. Many of them had exceptional skills in maths, science and music."

Former Headmaster, Fr Alan Whelan, agrees and adds, "I remember that the English diet was not really to their liking and they took to hoarding chinese delicacies in their wardrobes in readiness for a Saturday night feast! With so many Chinese in the school, we even took to celebrating Chinese New Year"  

Christopher Chan, who attended Princethorpe from 1984 to 1986, remembers, "The Three Horseshoes where we went for a beer & fun every weekend... the biggest moon ever seen in my life.. and Fr. O'Connor, the kindest Heamaster and our Volleyball Coach who once drove at high speed through a roundabout after we had won an away match."

Stephen Yeung (1971 - 1974) particularly remembers, "those times playing hockey, chess, inter-house quiz competitions and many other funny events."

Fellow boarder, Jean-Pierre Parsons recalls, "As far as sport went I can't remember much prowess on the rugby field but the Hong Kong Chinese were keen on hockey and very good with basketball and table tennis. And in terms of games you did not want to take these guys on at chess!

Jean-Pierre continues, "All in all, everyone in the boarding side of the school got on OK (you had to or life was going to be lonely) and the Hong Kong contingent mucked in with the rest of us; they just had further to fly when they went home for the summer holidays."

Charles Lawton, a fellow pupil from the early 70s, remembers the British boys of the time being 'alarmingly non academic' in comparison to their Hong Kong Chinese counterparts, who he describes as 'driven and competitive'.

Alan Young, came to Princethorpe in September 1978. He comments, "I had never been to the UK before, it was totally new to me. I had two brothers and three cousins who had studied at Princethorpe before me. I met lots of friends both locals and overseas."

He continues, "I was baptised by Fr Kennedy in 1980 in the school chapel, it was a wonderful memory. I still remember Fr Clarkson could remember each of our names, bear in mind that we were all Chinese, supposedly looking alike to him, he had a good memory. I had a great time on a trip to Oxford for seven days with some schoolmates led by Fr Kennedy and Fr O'Brien. I remember I got drunk for the first time and when Fr. O'Brien came to me, I was speaking Cantonese to him! I still remember his face! It was fun!"

By the sounds of it the Hong Kong Chinese were a very resourceful lot. Alan explains, "At that time, the boarding rooms had wooden floors, we hid lots of things under the floor, rice cooker, magazines.....you name it, we had it. We had a cable that could connect to the only socket in the room by removing the light bulb, then we could start cooking instant noodles with the rice cooker in the middle of the night.....how did we get rid of the smell.....Guess what? We had drawing papers rolled up like a chimney and we extended it to the window and let the smell vent outside the building...what an invention!"

After leaving Princethorpe in 1981, Alan went on to London University, returning to work in Hong Kong where he took a Masters degree at the University of Hong Kong. He went on to become a School Principal and is now the Principal Information Officer of a NGO in Hong Kong with a workforce of 6,000.

The numbers of Hong Kong Chinese boarding at the school came to an end when the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong back to Chinese rule took place in 1997 and boarding finished completely at the College in 2000, when demand for day places rose.

Alan Young has kindly provided this group picture, it was taken in 1979 in one of the classrooms next to the laundry room (Alan is the one in the middle front leaning against others at the back). The room was used as a study room for the Chinese from Hong Kong.