The loss of ‘LOBS’ (and I don’t mean the old school newspaper) – Sacha Robson
“LOBS!!!” The door flies open in excitement as an agitated junior stumbles into the room in an attempt to warn the class of the impending enemy’s arrival.
8H leaps into action; scattering paper and causing the contents of pencil cases to seemingly acquire a life of their own, as ‘second years’ jump off tables, and sprint for their seats. They know the daily drill. Heley hurriedly runs to the whiteboard to erase the drawings that although only moments ago seemed hilariously funny, begin to appear as if they may be far less amusing to the eyes of Mrs Gladwell. Silence takes over the classroom as the last chair scrapes and the occasional giggle or unnecessary cough dies down, and its occupants retrieve (with impressive speed I must add) the books from their bags which they would have been very unlikely to have ever looked at, had it not been for a teacher’s untimely interruption. The door opens onto a scene of picturesque innocence, a teachers dream, it’s a pity that the pencil case being dangled out of the window goes unnoticed.
Some of you may remember this pre-prep time lower school drill from your younger years at RHS. But where, might I question has the word which caused this amusing routine gone? RHS ‘jargon’ (that is, specific words used by an enclosed group of people,) appears to be becoming more and more endangered. It is possible that younger members of the school reading this, may not even be aware of what the acronym of LOBS stands for. For those of you to whom this applies, the phrase stands for “Look out boy sailors!”
Used to warn RHS boys (and before that undoubtedly Greenwich ones too,) of dangers of a warfare-centric nature, the phrase transferred to the classrooms of RHS certainly decades – if not longer – after its first use. I know that despite the fact it was once a word I used in my daily vocabulary, I had never particularly realised its serious connotations of warning in conflict, as opposed to the context of a childhood classroom situation which I just described. Knowing that the phrase which I had previously looked upon purely with amusement and growing nostalgia as it begins to die out, with new sobriety, I looked into an RHS alumni page in which I discovered more terms which are perhaps hardly left in living memory in 2016; “RHS not only brought us kinship but a new language, LOBS, Worgies, flop, gunge…gated, DT’s and much, much more.”
This use of jargon is something that I believe goes firmly hand in hand with other unique attributes of the school. These primarily include the sense of community and support which allegedly follow you long after you have left RHS, along with common experiences, which are put more aptly by an old boy than I can manage: “RHS steered and guided us into our future and that common bond of knowing that there is always someone you can turn to in that moment of triumph and despair, is what makes us proud to be RHSA Old Boys and Girls.”
Therefore, all jokes and classroom antics aside, is it not right to continue to promote the well loved acronym, held dearly in the hearts of RHS old boys for decades, among the student body today as part of our unique heritage? RHS is a school that is certainly one of a kind; for centuries, looking as far back as when the school was located in Greenwich, it has produced young men (and, more recently, women) who have fought and died for this country, and looked upon their unique jargon as something to use with pride in where they came from, long after they left. So, as we approach remembrance Sunday, is it not our duty, or even our responsibility to remember this remnant of a unique language just as we should those who created it?
“We think of our friends that have crossed the bar. We remember the good times we shared through the bond of brotherhood that binds us all…together no matter what decade we come from, the ties that link us through our shared experiences, loves, loss and life.”
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