There is an excellent site detailing female celebrities who were caned/slippered at school (Spanking Facts and Research) but does anyone know of one that details actors/popstars/sportsmen/footballers who were caned.
If not, let's see how many names we can come up with; from biographies/magazine articles I have read I can name quite a few if anyone is interested.

Yes, I’m interested. Have you got anything about Virginia Wade?

I heard Russell Crowe 'The Gladiator' on the E! Channel talking about being 'whacked on the arse by a sadist' at school in New Zealand. His crime? Not knowing the words to the school song.

Mel Gibson, attended secondary school in Melbourne, Australia.

He said the boys had competitions to see who could get the greatst number of strokes of the tawse on their hands in a week, and that he usually won.

Estelle Skornik - The pretty young French girl who is well known in the UK for her appearances in a series of TV commercials advertising Renault Clio motor-cars admitted in a magazine interview, “School was like a prison to me, and I couldn’t wait to leave. I was a shy girl, I had a real lack of confidence, and school seemed to make me worse. My teacher was very strict. She once left our classroom for a few minutes so I went to the front and started imitating her - and she came back and caught me. She put me over her knee, pulled my knickers down, and smacked me in front of the whole class. It was very humiliating.”

Dear Brightenlad,

You are right - someone should set up a page equivalent to the female celebrity page. I can offer the following from cursory glances in autobiographies, interviews and the web: Nicholas Parsons, Barry Fry, Steve Bull (ex Wolves soccer player), George Melly, Jeremy Paxman, Michael Portillo all slippered; Rio Ferdinand says he was caned (but isn't he too young?); the Pub Landlord - slipper; John Major - cane. There must be hundreds, especially sportsmaen of the older generation...

Good post Nicholas.

Yes, Rio Ferdinand was born in 1978, I believe the cane was banned in 1987ish, so it would be suprising if he was caned at school; I'd be interested to know where you heard that.

There cannot be many current footballers who could were been caned at school, but Teddy Sherringham has admitted he was slippered, and also caned on his hands. Ex-footballers Tony Cottee, Kevin Keegan and Bryan Robson were all caned on the backside, and Vinnie Jones got the slipper.

Any more?

You're quite right about Vinnie Jones. You presumably read about it in his book like I did! I also remember the TV presenter Nick Owen saying that he was given the cane at school, and that it "took the wind right out of my sails!" I didn't know about the other players you mentioned, though they're obviously of the right generation. I'd love to hear any other names you might have.

My guess is that most players of that generation (with the exception of squeaky-clean Lineker, of course) would have been regular recipients of either the cane or slipper. Don't know how we find out, but if we do, let's post names and details here.

More footballers who admitted in their biographies that they were caned at school are Ian Rush and Ian Wright. Also in a Man Utd magazine questionnaire Dennis Irwin said he was caned a couple of times by some strict Catholic brothers.

Brightenlad, where did you find out about Teddy Sheringham? I looked in his autobiog. a couple of days ago, but didn't see any reference. I cannot remember where I heard about Rio Ferdinand, I'm afraid. Do you have any info. on other soccer players - Emlyn Hughes, John Aldridge, Stuart Pearce maybe? Their on-the-pitch spirit must have been with them in the classroom, and would not have gone unchecked...!

Thanks for the further post Nicholas, glad to see someone else is interested in this topic. Can't help with the 3 you mentioned, indeed I seem to recall John Aldridge saying that his father told him not to let any teacher cane him! But I agree that a lot of footballers of that era, with the disciplinary records they had, must have got the cane/slipper at school.
I can e mail you my source for the Teddy Sherigham details, and inded I have one or two more names as well. It would be good if someone else could come up with some more.

Yes, Brightenlad, I would like to know your Sheringham source! And maybe any other names you might have. I added a post to your prep/public school thread re. unjust punishments at mine, which you may not have seen. Nothing to do with footballers though ,I'm afraid.

The comedian Max Miller (real name Thomas Henry Sargent) is quoted in ‘Max Miller –the Cheeky Chappie’ by John East, thus:

The teacher used to say, “Come out Sargent! Lie across that desk!” Then I had then usual strokes. One afternoon the teacher called me out six times. After she’d finished I said, “I think I’ll stay here.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I won’t be able to sit down now,” I told her.
That time she had to laugh too. It’s a funny thing, but forty years later, when I played the Brighton Hippodrome, she came to see me in my dressing room.
“You used to be a dunce at school,” she said. “But you haven’t turned out to be much of a dunce after all.”
Then she told me she’d never seen me on the stage. That was worse than any beating she gave me.

Dear Big Ones,

Thank you for your e-mail message.

Just because I do not know how many goals W.G. Grace scored against Birchfield Harriers at Epsom in 1998, does not mean that I know nothing about sport!

Oh, you foolish girl! It was seventeen, because he refused to leave the field after the ref blew full time and found it a lot easier to score after that.

Rumour has it that he then retired to the bar and scored quite a lot more later.

This could be apocryphal.

I found the following on a fetish site. Does anyone have any more information?

This fascination with earliest spankings is described in the autobiography of the late Sir Laurence Olivier. Much of the first part of the book contains descriptions of spankings and other corporal punishment at home and at school. Sir Laurence remarks that for so many people the first moment of awareness in childhood involves a spanking.

I haven't read Laurence Olivier's biography but in Ian Gibson's book "The English Vice - Beating, Sex and Shame in Victorian England and After", there is quoted a letter L.O. wrote to the Observer which reads:
'The first time a schoolmaster ordered me to take my trousers down I knew it was not from any doubt that he could punish me efficiently enough with them up. The theatre is concerned, whether in the deepest tragedy or the lightest comedy, with the teaching of the human heart the knowledge of itself, and sometimes, when it is necessary - and we are obviously going through such a time - with the study, understanding and recognition of that most dreaded and dangerous eccentricity in the human design, the tripartite conspiracy between the sexual, the excretory and the cruel.'
He was writing in defence of Edward Bond's play "Saved" in which a baby in a pram with a wet nappy is stoned to death.
Talking of Edward Bond, he has also translated Franz Wedekind's play "Spring Awakening" set in Germany about 1900. Early on in this one of a group of schoolgirls describes to the others how her father strips and beats her and makes her stand outside the house in just her shift. Later on there is a scene in which a boy seeks to beat a girl as part of some sex play.

Mick Jagger got caned at Dartford Grammar School: http://www.tes.co.uk/search/search_display.asp?section=Archive&sub_section=Friday&id=332993&Type=0

The late Brian Jones, also of the Rolling Stones, had "frequent canings" at school in Cheltenham: http://www.classicrockpage.com/rrheaven/jones.htm

"Sting" claims to have been caned 42 times in one year at school in Newcastle: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/3415/sting.htm

Sometime wannabe rock star Tony Blair, now prominent in a rather different line of business, got "six of the best" at age 17 at Fettes College: http://www.corpun.com/uks00103.htm#7360

Botham - slippered at school
Alec Stewart almost undoubtedly slippered/caned - went to my school!
Chris Tarrant - caned in assembly / in front of whole school (on the backside)
Anyone know if Tony Adams ever copped it?

Richard, where did you find out about Ian Botham? I don't know about Tony Adams, but he is the right generation and temperament - he must have done. Nice thought! Just read your other text re. slipper or plimsoll. Good to know that there is someone else out there who has felt a real slipper on his arse - you're right, it doesn't hurt as much, but the sound is just as exciting!

A few more footballers caned at school:-
John Barnes caned at a strict Jesuits school in Jamaica, and Dwight Yorke in Tobago.
Also Viv Anderson, the first black footballer to play for England, ex Nottingham Forest, Man Utd, and Arsenal player, who went to Fairham Comprehensive in Nottingham. While he was still a Forest player, he visited his old school with a TV crew and some of the kids were able to ask him a few questions. One asked him if he was ever caned, and he replied "Yes, plenty of times". This was shown on a Saturday lunchtime football show; I can't remember it's name.

Botham info from his autobiography. He is favour of the slipper alonmg the lines of "we got it, it hurt like hell but it kept us in line."
Seem to remember hearing Glen Hoddle slippered by his Dad
And Nick Faldo's dad was a military policeman with a pretty foul temper! Says it all?

Not a footballer, but a legendary cyclist from Texas who has won 5 Tour de France's on the trot, and must be exceptionally fit, Lance Armstrong.His autobiography has recently been released, and he tells us that he was paddled by his stepfather fairly often and hard.

Richard, I believe that Ian Botham mentions that he was caned at school, not slippered. That probably happened too, of course, but I don't remember any reference to it.

I’ll bet those old-time soccer players such as Dixie Dean, Nat Lofthouse and Stanley ‘the wizard of the weave’ Matthews were always getting caned for playing football behind the bike sheds. They wouldn’t have grumbled though, as long as they made the squad.

The magic of Stanley Matthews lives on at this forum. We have our own ‘Wizard of the Weave’ who writes under the name of ...

G. Boycott described a scool caning he had for eating chips in the street. He said it was very painful and afterwards he sat in a washbasin full of cold water in the school toilets.

The composer Britten is quoted on the subkect of corporal punishment in his biography by Humphrey Carpenter. A few examples:

"I can remember the first time that I heard a boy being beaten...and to find that it was sort of condoned and accepted was something that shocked me very much."

"You got beaten on the slightest pretext, with a hell of a palaver. For really extra special beatings the whole school was assembled...We always said that Sewell liked beating boys, but we were much too frightened to complain."

He also wrote about his schooldays in the 3rd person in an essay, which includes: "He behaved fairly well...so that his contacts with the cane or the slipper were happily rare (although one nocturnal expedition to stalk ghosts left its marks behind)."

I also sem to remember reading the liberal use of slipper at Botham's school, and how he thought it a good thing!
Incidenatlly,Nick Faldo on his website describes in his Early Years section how he was frequently "in trouble..." eg Boy was I in trouble but I never got the chance to explain my side of the story to Dad!" Given his Dad was a military policeman from the East End there's little doubt that the slipper or probably the thick belt were in regular use in the Faldo household. Good thing, I reckon! He's a stroppy lad and I'd personally pay good money to give him a bloody good seeing to!!!

"Take down your trousers and we will cane your bare bottom. It really was like that in those days" Actor Patric McKnee describing Nivens'(and his own) school days in a recent television programe.
David Niven was born in 1910, McKnee must be about a dozen years younger, but they came from a similar social background an were friends an colegues in adult life.

A couple more footballers caned at school; the Fashanu brothers, Justin and John. Both caned in 1977, Justin got 3 strokes and John 2 at their school in Norwich. John was born in Sept 62 and Justin in Feb 61. Both started their footballing careers at Norwich. Further details available on the corpun.com website.

Check out Ronnie O'Sullivan's new autobiography. He talks about the wallopings his dad used to give him, culminating on one occasion with a severe slippering, which left him with a "very sore bum".

Interesting thread this one.

Any more names?

Would like to know more about Teddy Sherringham if anybody has any details?

Rik Mayall, in his recent autobiography, alludes to having received the slipper at school, in a spoof letter to his former headmaster.

Howard Donald (of the famous Take That fame!) once mentioned getting the cane at school in an interview apparently.

I can provide some more information re the last two additions to this post:- Howard Donald was quoted in the Take That annual of 1994 "I got the cane about seven times and the slipper twice" in answer to the question did you ever get detention at school?

The information about Teddy Sheringham came from a Man Utd magazine which used to run a feature each week asking Man Utd players about their schooldays. One of the questions was did you ever get the cane?
He recalled getting the slipper in PE once or twice and the cane for throwing a snowball in class. "My hands were still cold when he hit me and it was very sore"

Johnathon Ross was caned at school

In his autobiography, Kevin Pietersen mentions getting the cane both at school and at home in SA. He was born in 1980, so this must have been in the 1990s.

Kevin Pietersen mentions it in the following interview (if you can bear to look at the Daily Mail):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/cricket.html?in_article_id=402669

"In the book he admits to being caned as a boy at school and by his father, but waves away the modern assumption that children who are beaten end up damaged.

"I think corporal punishment was right. I was naughty at school I got caned — so what?" he asks. "I don't think there's a problem with it. I got clouted — so what? ""

Actually, from what I've read, I think you can probably take it that just about every male who went to school in South Africa up to and including the mid-1990s was caned. It was theoretically abolished in 1996.

Male celebrities I can think of.

Prince Phillip - caned at school
Prince Charles - caned at school
Boy George - caned at school
John Stapleton - caned at school
Tony Blair - caned at school
John Major - caned at school
Paddy Ashdown - caned at school
Winston Churchill - birched at school
Malcolm MacDowell - slippered at school

There`s many more but I can`t remember at the moment.

Paul

Some new male references that have recently been published:

Vic Reeves (comedian): His book “Me:Moir” contains an extremely colourful, entertaining and ultimately rather moving account of the slippering he received at his (mixed) junior school in the early seventies.

Rupert Everett (actor): His new autobiography “Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins” describes the daily slipperings which were dished out at his eccentric boarding school. (Talking of eccentric boarding schools, Everett is reprising the Alistair Simm headmistress role in a new St Trinians film, so let’s hope he turns up on set with an appropriate implement!)

Keith Allen (father of pop star Lily Allen/ Sheriff of Nottingham): In a recent interview with “The Times” he went into considerable detail about his canings at Brentwood School in Essex. The headmaster, who is named, used to run up to cane pupils:

“He actually put a little hop and a skip as he came across his study. And it hurt. Even with the books it hurt. It was a cane and a very whippy one and it would come around the books and hit me on the top of the thigh. Those were the days, eh?” (Strangely, it is not explained what the reference to ‘books’ in this context actually means. An over zealous sub-editor?)

There is then some discussion (and disagreement) with the interviewer Andrew Billen, who by coincidence, went to the same school, about whether this headmaster took pleasure out of caning.

Pesumambly what Keith Allen meant was he had exercise books down the back of his trousers but the tip of the cane wrapped round and still caught him.
I would guess he didn`t take a cane to his daughter`s backside judging by her alleged liking of parties, drink & drugs.

Paul

I would agree that this is almost certainly the explanation, although I'd tended to assume that this practice was confined to the pages of the Beano! Several pairs of underpants maybe, but surely on bending over, even slim bendy exercise books would be blatantly obvious. Perhaps the practice was tacitly condoned for less serious offences.

The singer "Sting", lead singer of the group "The Police" received frequent floggings at his catholic school.
He received a total of 42 strokes of the cane in a single term, a school record apparently.

Paul

Three not very masculine men.

Paul O`Grady - caned at school
Dale Winton - caned at school
Boy George - caned at school

Richard E.Grant (British Actor) - caned at school.
Murray Walker (Motor Racing Commentator) - caned at school.

Sting had quite a bit to say about his canings too:

"Six of the best" is a quaint euphemism for the ferocity of this excruciating torture. One is normally "sent up" to the main building after lunch. On the left as you enter is the school chapel, where a lingering trace of incense from Wednesday's Benediction gives the air in the narrow corridor an unmistakable fragrance: it is the sanctified odour of ritual sacrifice. There is usually more than one victim waiting in a sorry line outside the office. The school settles into an eerie silence as afternoon classes begin: the clock in the hall is ticking slowly; we wait like the condemned, not daring to speak. We continue to wait, and wait, and I know from past experience that this is quite deliberate psychological torture.

I project myself into an imagined future, years hence in the urbane security of adult life, where I can look back upon this trial and others like it with a detached and amused nostalgia. "One day, this won't seem so bad," I tell myself, and this trick will work for me in a number of stressful situations, but only up to a point. The school clock is still ticking and the office door creaks open slowly. Sometimes, I'm called first, sometimes in the middle, sometimes last. Perhaps it's best to get it over with, or then again, if you delay, there's always the chance that the good father may be called to a telephone and cancel the whole disciplinary session because his mother has just died, or perhaps an earthquake will shake the school to its foundations, and I imagine rescuing a grateful Father Walsh from the rubble of his office.

But despite my imaginings, it's a heroism of a different kind that is required here.

"Take your jacket off and put it over the chair.''

The study looks out over the playing fields, where I can see a football being lobbed into the air and a straggling line of cross-country runners. No one seems to have a care in the world out there.

"Bend over, facing the window.''

Sometimes, with some foresight, you can be wearing an extra pair of underpants beneath your grey flannels, but this is as rare as it is unlikely, and an exercise book down your trousers only works in the comics. There is a sudden swish of air in the room behind you and then what feels like a cut from a rapier across the cheeks of your arse. The shocking pain reflexively has you standing bolt upright and winded.

The man on the crucifix by the window averts his eyes from the torture; is this really being done in his name? Whish! Up you go.

That even the threat of this barbarity is effective in keeping us compliant, quiescent and largely obedient is not in question. It is brutally effective. I just wonder whether those who suffered this painful indignity ever turned out the way they were supposed to. My suspicion is that, if we were to evolve into responsible and law-abiding citizens, we would do so despite this treatment, not because of it. Any idea that I would become an unquestioning and uncritical follower of the church's wisdom flew out the office window as the final swipe found its target at the seat of my resentment.

A telling account by Sting this. It makes me wonder if my opinions are wrong and that time has softened the effects of the dreaded rattan.

"Sometimes, with some foresight, you can be wearing an extra pair of underpants beneath your grey flannels,
but this is as rare as it is unlikely, and an exercise book down your trousers only works in the comics".

Good to see that Sting has obviously been reading this thread.(See my post of October 23rd.)
I shall have to consult my lawyers though.

In her autobiography “Unzipped”, Susie Quatro mentions on page 6 that she was spanked with a wooden spoon by her grandmother.

Book "Olivier"
Page 8
Describes Olivier receiving bare bottom strappings from schoolmaster at boarding school making him yelp so loud it was heard at the vicarage across the street, and how prefects would relish caning Olivier with vigour because he yelped in agony so loudly.

Just read on another forum that when Rory Underwood (a fairly recent England Rugby Union International) was at school his Housemaster was very strict and use his cane regularly; Rory Underwood, was one of many who were caned, but no further details were given on the forum.

It was recently reported that TV presenter Richard Madeley was caned by a schoolmaster who always brought in the same female teacher (his fiance`) as a witness.
Madeley claims the female teacher enjoyed the spectacle.

Paul
SF&R: sfrsite.topcities.com

I can recall reading Women's Magazine which featured an article entitled "Meet the film star who is spanked" about Ricky on the set of "Little Lord Fauntleroy". Apparently his mother hauled him off to his caravan and spanked him in the middle of filming one day for playing up with his sister. I hope it was in the traditional form as otherwise those thick period knickerbockers would have made his punishment ineffective!

Scotty

prince william and prince harry was both smacked on there bottoms when they was ytoung.