Conker Cover

The photo on your November cover (pictured) shows boys collecting considerable quantities of conkers. As a young boy I also collected conkers, sometimes having enough to make a rope of them, but I never encountered boys collecting such vast quantities as portrayed in your picture. No caption explained the situation portrayed, so I wonder what the reason was for gathering such a large harvest.

Len Street, by email

EDITOR REPLIES: Thanks Len. We always include a caption for the cover image on the left-hand edge of the Welcome page, but it is so tucked away, I’m not surprised that you didn’t see it. The caption reads: “Boys of Pixie Hill Camp School in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, collect conkers in 1942 to be used for animal feed and medicinal purposes.” Does anyone know what the “medicinal purposes” might have been?