“Peel was a shy boy who tended towards obstinate non-conformity, for which he paid in regular thrashings – he recalled that the school authorities ‘practically had to wake me up during the night in order to administer the required number of sound beatings’. Peel estimated the ‘flagellation rate’ in his first term at once every three days, but denied having been scarred by the experiences. ‘You developed techniques for coping’, he reflected.” Learn more