I was an attendee at grammar school in Wales in the 1960s.

Before this time I had no direct experience of formal corporal punishment.

My Parents disapproved of physical discipline.

However the cane was still in use on rare occasions in my primary school,

In my first year in grammar school, I was at my desk during a break.

As several previous occupiers of the desk had carved their initials on it,

I decided to do the same.

I was in the middle of doing this when the headmaster entered the room, catching me red-handed.

“What are you doing, boy?” he roared.

I could hardly deny responsibility, and the headmaster told me to bend over the very desk which I’d vandalized.

I received three sharp strokes of the cane on the seat of my trousers.