The top Scots school, its sexual sadist headmaster... and a bid to ‘airbrush’ him from history
ONE of Scotland’s most famous private schools has pointedly distanced itself from a former headmaster before a major inquiry into historical sexual abuse looks into claims against him.
Anthony Chenevix-Trench ran Fettes College in Edinburgh for almost a decade but his reputation has been tarnished by repeated claims that – while at Fettes and other schools, including Eton and Shrewsbury – he beat pupils for his own sexual gratification.
Now, in a highly symbolic move, Fettes has removed his portrait from its Great Hall.
A brass commemorative plaque celebrating his ‘love of his fellowmen’ has also been removed from the school chapel.
Allegations about Chenevix-Trench have been presented to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), a major investigation into the abuse of children in care.
Fettes, whose alumni include former Prime Minister Tony Blair, last week confirmed to the Scottish Mail on Sunday that as a result of the claims made to the SCAI, it had carried out its own investigations into the former headmaster.
Although the school insisted that it had not discovered any evidence of criminal behaviour by ChenevixTrench, it concluded ‘his judgment . . . did not measure up’ to the school’s standards. Before moving to Fettes, Chenevix-Trench was headmaster at Eton for six years. Although the reason for his departure from Eton was never made public, it was widely known in boarding school circles that he had been asked to leave because of his increasingly sadistic treatment of boys.
Despite this, he was appointed head at Fettes in 1971, and remained until his death in 1979, aged 60.
It is understood that the school authorities, concerned about his behaviour, had been trying to force him into early retirement. For years, he was commemorated by a brass plaque in the school chapel which read: ‘In loving memory ... a great scholar, a wise dedicated teacher whose door was always open, for he loved his fellow-men.’ Last night, one former pupil who said ChenevixTrench had abused him welcomed the decision to remove the portrait.
But he said that Fettes should have apologised for employing the teacher in the first place.
David Blackie, 71, claims he endured many episodes of brutal sadism when Chenevix-Trench was a housemaster at Bradfield School in Berkshire.
Mr Blackie has been petitioning Fettes since 1994 to remove the portrait of Chenevix-Trench. Yesterday, he said: ‘The plaque commemorating him was grotesque.
‘It said his “door was always open, for he loved his fellow-men”.
‘In fact, he had a deviant form of love for his fellow man and took great care to ensure that the door was locked.
‘I’m glad Fettes has finally distanced itself from this odious little man and from any tacit acceptance of his perverse proclivities.’
Mr Blackie added: ‘Fondling or beating pubescent boys on the bare
‘He had a deviant form of love for his fellow man’
behind in a locked room is a crime. But there was surely no greater crime than that committed by Fettes in appointing him to the headmastership and so placing a new group of boys at risk.
‘The incompetence was criminal and the regard for pastoral care was non-existent.’
The late journalist Paul Foot was taught – and beaten – by ChenevixTrench at Shrewsbury, and was first to write about his former master’s brutality. In an essay published in 1996, Foot wrote: ‘In his foreword to a new biography of Anthony Chenevix-Trench, Sir William Gladstone writes that Trench’s “interest was in drawing out the best from boys as individuals”.
‘Another interest, not mentioned by Sir William, lay in drawing down the underpants of boys – as individuals – before ordering them to lie on his sofa while he spanked their bare buttocks.’
Another former pupil, Christopher Hourmouzios, said in a newspaper interview in the mid-1990s that Chenevix-Trench ‘once flogged the living daylights out of me with a strap on my bare backside’.
It was also claimed that he went on to beat all 21 students in a divinity class in one afternoon. The SCAI, chaired by Lady Smith and set up in October 2015 to look into the abuse of children in care, will be considering claims made against the former headteacher.
In a statement last week, Fettes confirmed that it had taken down the portrait of Chenevix-Trench, along with the brass plaque in his memory.
The governors said: ‘Although Mr Chenevix-Trench was a loyal headmaster and highly regarded by many at Fettes College, our recent, thorough, internal investigations for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry have prompted further discussions.
‘We have no information to suggest that any crime was committed by Mr Chenevix-Trench while at Fettes.
‘However, as we have reported to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, his judgment in handling two specific matters did not measure up to the excellent pastoral care we pride ourselves on at Fettes today.’
‘Chenevix-Trench was a loyal headmaster’