Charles Spencer, the younger brother of the late Princess Diana, was only 8 when he was sent away to an all-boys boarding school in the English countryside. Maidwell Hall catered to the upper crust of British society. But Spencer says what he experienced from the staff β blows to the head with a signet ring, a beating with metal-spiked cricket cleats and sexual abuse by a female caretaker β has haunted him for nearly 50 years.
Spencer attended the school until age 13 and went on to become a historian, podcaster and bestselling author. He said he felt compelled to write the book after several former students confided in him their dark memories and lasting trauma. Spencer, the godson of Queen Elizabeth II and the uncle of the future king, was born into privilege but still endured a complicated childhood.
He was 2 when his mother divorced his father and left the family home. His father was loving but withdrawn and seemingly depressed, Spencer said. Diana became his protector. On his first day at their local day school, little Diana insisted on leaving her classroom to check in on him. Maidwell Hall sits on sprawling, picturesque grounds in Northamptonshire, about two hours north of London.
At the heart of the estate is a 17th century manor house. The roughly 75 boys at the school all lived on the grounds surrounded by stone walls. Boys were routinely beaten with canes for minor transgressions. Others were struck with heavy window poles, Spencer said. It was not uncommon to see students in the communal shower rooms with split-open skin and bloody welts on their buttocks from the canings.
Porch ran Maidwell the entire time Spencer attended he is now deceased. Porch would force the young boys to drop their pants and their underwear and lie across his lap to be whipped. He sometimes fondled their genitals in the process, Spencer said. One day, Spencer was alone inside a locker room changing his clothes to play cricket when a male teacher walked in.
