THE compensation culture is not new – it was alive and well 70+ years ago.

A boy at Southfield Grammar School in Oxford sued Oxford Corporation after he cut his foot on broken glass as he prepared to go into the school gymnasium.

The boy, George Thomas Cheney, 16, and his father, George Alfred Cheney, of Rose Hill, claimed £98 special damages, but the case was thrown out after a two-day hearing before a judge at Oxfordshire Assizes in January 1941.

The court heard that George was in the changing rooms waiting to enter the gym when a boy called Falck threw a shoe at another boy. It hit a gym door, scattering glass all over the floor.

The master, Owen Slater, ordered Falck to clear up the glass.

Mr H D Peacock, representing the Cheneys, said: “It appears that Mr Slater made no inspection to see whether all the glass was swept up and called the boys into the gymnasium.

“Apparently, the custom at the school is for boys to do their gym in bare feet. After about 10 minutes, Cheney noticed that his right foot was bleeding near the heel.

“He went to Mr Slater’s room and reported what had happened, but although he had a first-aid kit, Mr Slater told the boy to wipe the blood off with a piece of cotton wool and allowed him to go back to continue his gym.”

Mr Peacock said that by the evening, the foot had swollen and the boy was in pain and had a high temperature. He was later diagnosed with septicaemia and was taken to the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he stayed for six weeks.

His condition caused great anxiety and at one point, his life was “despaired of”.

Mr Peacock said: “It is feared he will suffer a permanent disability to his ankle and he will find it extremely hard to carry on any sort of ordinary career over the next year or 18 months.”

But medical experts predicted that if he had an operation, the boy could be back playing sport in a year. There was also evidence that he had cut his heel playing rugby a few weeks earlier.

Mr Slater, giving evidence, said that after telling Faulk to clear up the glass, he told the boys to move away. “There was no reason why Cheney should have gone to that area where the glass was.”

He added: “I wiped the cut with my cotton wool and also applied some disinfectant. I am sure I did not tell Cheney to wipe the blood off himself.”

Giving judgement to the Corporation with costs, Mr Justice Hawke said it was likely that the operation, and even possibly nature, would put the boy right, and that Mr Slater had done “everything that a careful parent would do”.

Memory Lane this week