Penge Penal Institute, 21 November, 3 pm
An extraordinary Sunday meeting of the Institute, at the request of local vicar, Rev. Horatio Plomer of St Mary’s Penge. His sermon having been disrupted by persistent giggling by two girls in the second pew, Rev. Plomer met with the girls’ parents in the vestry after the church and, with their full agreement, made arrangements for the two girls to be dealt with as soon as possible. The girls – Celia Jones, 14, and Patricia McCall, 15 – were offered the choice of being punished before the congregation at evensong or being sent to the Penge Penal Institute for summary chastisement. They chose the latter.
SCO Rodwell, who had been in the congregation at St Mary’s and witnessed the girls’ behaviour, was charged with teaching them a suitable lesson. She opted to put the girls over her knee and spank them with a wooden hair brush on the bare bottom until they begged for mercy. The girls were then made to stand in the corner for half an hour, with their badly bruised posteriors exposed to view.
Signed: SCO RODWELL