Letters from Lockdown

Like all the best ideas, the initiative Letters from Lockdown arose from a face-to-face conversation, that basic mode of human interaction that so many people have been denied over the last year.

‘Dom,’ said Hilary (aka Mrs Dugdale), ‘I’ve just had an idea. It’s probably bonkers but may I run it by you?’

Well, I’ve been at Lancing long enough to know that Hilary’s ideas are rarely bonkers and always worth listening to. And this one turned out to be a corker. In brief, she suggested that we get some Lancing pupils to write letters to our octogenarian and nonagenarian OLs, describing their own experience of lockdown in 2021. We chose that particular tranche of the OL community partly because we were sure many of them, who might well have had significantly reduced contact with the outside world in the last 12 months, would welcome a letter from a current Lancing pupil. But also because, just as Lancing’s current crop of pupils have experienced the difficulties of lockdown and remote learning, that generation of OLs had lived through the dislocating ordeals of war and evacuation.

As we discussed Hilary’s cunning plan, further refinements were made. It was decided that we’d get the whole of the Fourth Form to write letters; moreover, we’d devote a couple of weeks of Fourth Form lessons to learning about the experience of evacuees, reading literary classics which deal with life as an evacuee, delving into the school archive for photos and written accounts relating to Lancing’s own evacuation to the Teme valley, and reviving the almost forgotten art of letter writing. It seemed important that the letters be handwritten, as this gave them that human touch which is missing from so much of the digital world. Creamy Basildon Bond notepaper was ordered in heroic quantities and the Fourth Form rose to the challenge set with equally heroic enthusiasm.

Over 100 epistles went out to the 50 or so OLs who’d indicated they would welcome a letter, and scores of beautifully written responses, full of fascinating details of life in the 1940s, winged their way back to the pupils. This was a largely unexpected bonus: our OLs were under no obligation to respond – we’d only asked them if we could write to them – but respond they did, and the result is a treasure trove of personal and social history which delighted, captivated and astounded the class of 2021.

The pupils, of course, got to keep the originals, but copies were taken of all the letters, both pupils’ and OLs’, and these have been placed in the Lancing College Archive.

DOM HARMAN Head of English

I was excited to start writing my letter to my OL as I was eager to learn more about Lancing during the war but also to compare differences between the generations and experiences during the COVID lockdowns. I was beyond excited when Mr Harris replied with a wonderful letter telling me all about the places he’s visited and the many opportunities he has enjoyed in his life, for example living on a fruit farm near Cape Town, or training teachers in a string of villages along the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan as part of the VSO. He explained how he was at Lancing until 1954 when he joined the army at 17, and that the Boarding House Teme was named after the area where Lancing was evacuated to Shropshire during the war.

I have found exchanging letters to be very beneficial. I was overwhelmed with the response, and I am very thankful to have been given this opportunity.

EVA BAKER Fourth Form At the beginning of 2021, the Fourth Form thoughtfully and carefully handwrote letters to OLs who attended the College in the years around WWII. We focused on asking about the parallels between the wartime experience through which they lived, and the far more recent experiences of the pandemic that we are all living through at the moment. I wrote to my OL about my short time at Lancing so far and my plans to become an academic in the future. Also, I asked about the role of the Chapel in his Lancing days, and about how he is faring in these challenging times. I received a wonderfully detailed reply, which painted picture of the customs of his days at Lancing – some of them very similar to those of today. He also told me about his technological triumphs in operating an iPhone, iPad and iMac, which I thought were very impressive.

HANNAH CLEALLSMITH Fourth Form