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I'm very surprised to learn that kitbags are still in use at QE (2009), although they're no longer white like this one (from 1954). The kitbag was a pervasive feature of school life in the fifties. It is impossible to imagine the cloakrooms without row upon row of white kitbags, one hanging from each peg. They contained rugger, cricket and gym kit and had to be taken home regulary so that the contents could be washed. There were kit inspections now and again.  Boys in QE uniform, trudging along with their kitbags on their backs were a common sight in Barnet.  The kitbags had padlocks and handles, but these had to be handed in when you finally left school.  This particular kitbag, belonging to Nigel Palmer, was a victim of the dreaded BENZ PUNZ (pron. "bends spoons") disease. It was apparently the trademark graffito of one Victor Coughtrey, and was likely to appear in tiny characters just about anywhere in the school (the perpetrator himself has no recollection of it, and no idea what it could have signified). The padlock belongs to Mike Cottrell, whose time at the school overlapped Nigel's and mine. The number showing is the year he started at the school.