New pupils were branded during initiation rituals at Gordonstoun

THE school favoured by the royal Family was stuck in ‘Victorian times’ with ritual initiations, bullying and even branding, a former headmaster told an inquiry yesterday.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is hearing statements from pupils and teachers at Gordonstoun School in Moray.

It also heard from a former seamanship instructor at the private school who strung up a female pupil seven feet in the air for two-and-a-half hours.

Former headmaster Mark Pyper, 74, told the inquiry that when he first arrived at the school in 1990, he was ‘shocked’ by what he saw.

He said: ‘Gordonstoun was in Victorian times at best. The houses had ritualistic initiations and were full of punching, kicking, nipple tweaking, and even branding.

‘I was shocked by what I found, saw and heard on my arrival.’

Mr Pyper revealed that the school had not been seen by the Care Inspectorate for 17 years – something which should happen every seven years.

He also said that staff and pupils had been unwilling to comply with his new regime after he showed his willingness to expel pupils for bullying and banned physical punishment.

Mr Pyper added: ‘I expelled two of the first team rugby players for bullying a junior and was told by some teachers that I couldn’t do that because they are in the first team.

‘That same day I abolished all physical punishments.

‘I had heard stories of children being told to run to the beach and gather ocean water in their mouth and then told to spit it at the feet of their teachers.’

Mr Pyper told the inquiry that when he first joined, information regarding abuse allegations against a teacher at the school was kept away from him.

Andrew Keir, who taught physics at Gordonstoun, had been accused of sexually abusing two young boys during swimming sessions in the late 1980s.

Mr Pyper said this information was kept out of Keir’s file. He said: ‘Allegations were made in 1989, I was not informed of those. There was no information on his file, I was doubly uninformed. I checked his file and there was nothing about it in his file.’

In 2018, Keir was convicted of lewd acts involving three boys at the school between 1988 and 1991.

Mr Pyper was described by his colleague Diana Monteith as being ‘ahead of his time’ with his reforms to physical punishment.

One former seamanship teacher at Gordonstoun provided a written statement to the inquiry.

The man, known only as robert, worked for the school between 1984 and 1998. He believed that physical punishment was necessary so pupils could learn right from wrong, a stance contrary to the beliefs of Mr Pyper.

He spoke of one incident where he tied a female pupil to a chair and hoisted her in the air using a rope system on the Seaspirit boat after she had been caught smoking on board.

robert said: ‘I hoisted a female pupil up seven feet and left her for two-and-a-half hours.

‘I felt it was enough for her being caught smoking.

‘She broke school rules and the cardinal rules of the sea.’

After the girl made a complaint, robert was investigated by

‘Kept out of the public eye’

the school. He said: ‘I was told to keep my head below the parapet by one of the school governors. The incident was kept out of the public eye to save us all the embarrassment.

‘Princess Anne had children at the school during this time and I suspect it was to stop causing them some embarrassment also.’

robert told the inquiry he frequently wrote to the headmaster about his willingness to use physical punishment.

Following the investigation, he was asked by Mr Pyper, via the chaplain, to leave the school.

The inquiry continues.