School Fights

                                                               School Fights

At Keswick school there were family clans.The Smiths and the Browns were the biggest clans. There were smaller clans at the school but these two by their sheer size were the most powerful. These clans probably prevented the existence of any extortion rings at the school. Sometimes war would break out between the families and it would continue for weeks. Bertie Smith was the leader of the Smiths when I was at school and Neville Brown led the Browns. These clans could expel a student who was not aligned to any clan. I don't know how true it was but one of the Smith brothers, Will, was rumored to have killed a man while at a training camp. He buried the man under sand. He  returned home and was doing evening classes at school when a fight broke out with the Browns. He promptly called for his knife and stabbed a Brown almost killing him. He ran from the school but was caught several days later by the police. If you were a loner and had no allegiance to any clan, even one of the smaller ones, you would be in trouble. Once the other clan members realized your situation they would pick on you. When I was there I formed allegiance with some of the smaller clans through friends and a few relatives.