History Lesson.
Fagging was a traditional practice in British public schools and also at many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the eldest boys. Although probably originating earlier, the first accounts of fagging appeared in the late seventeenth century. Fagging sometimes involved physical abuse and or sexual abuse. Although lessening in severity over time, the practice continued in some schools until the late twentieth century.
The practice was an established system at Saint Paul's, Eton, and Winchester in the sixteenth century.
Fagging carried with it well-defined rights and duties on both sides. The senior, sometimes called the fag-master, was the protector of his fags and responsible for their happiness and good conduct. In case of any problem outside the classroom, such as bullying or injustice, a junior boy's recourse was to him, not to a form master or housemaster, and, except in the gravest cases, all incidents were dealt with by the fag-master on his own responsibility.
The duties undertaken by fags, the time taken, and their general treatment varied widely. Each school had its own traditions and expectations. Until around 1900, a fag's duties would include such humble tasks as blacking boots, brushing clothes, and cooking breakfasts, and there was no limit as to hours the fag would be expected to work. Later, fagging was restricted to such tasks as running errands and bringing tea to the fag-master's study. The 1911 Britannica details an evolution of the role at Eton. Under school rules, fagging might involve harsh discipline and corporal punishment when those were standard practices.
Some characters in P. G. Wodehouse's school stories are fags, such as Reginald Robinson in The Pothunters (1902) and Thomas Renford in The Gold Bat (1904). In his 1984 autobiography Boy, Roald Dahl states that when he was a young fag, he was instructed to warm toilet seats for older boys at Repton School, and he wrote a fictional account of the experience of fagging in his short story Galloping Foxley.
