“On browsing through ‘Memories of Pangbourne’ I noticed an entry from Robin Knight questioning the identity of Bart’s Arse,” writes Jerry Grandage (53-58). “My memory is that it was (is?) not the hill from the College down to the village. Rather it was a feature on one (or more) slopes on the running circuits near…
DetailsDavid Inglesby (67-71) wrote to the Editor of the OP Magazine: “Have you ever considered running a piece on extra-curricular activities which took place at the College? I was thinking that perhaps you might, at the risk of corrupting the youth of today, ask for contributions from OP’s about recollections (by now possibly greatly embellished),…
DetailsA brief account of my time in HMS Ajax 1943-44 and our part in the Invasion of Europe. Having wanted to go to sea from the earliest of ages, writes Richard Llewellyn (39-43) I was entered for the Nautical College, Pangbourne and became an RNR Cadet there in September 1939. I left school as soon…
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It was a lovely sunny Founders’ Day – my first, in July, 1957. Hugo White (53-57) was Chief Cadet Captain. The Guest of Honour was a Captain Sorrel, then commanding Cunard’s Queen Mary. He was not a large man. My photo of the occasion shows him inspecting Port Jackson division (at that time limited to…
DetailsThe Start of a Sea-going Career The clearance did come and I left Pangbourne at the end of the Michaelmas Term in December 1958 to start my Indentures with the British India Steam Navigation Company. I joined my first ship, Nyanza, an elegant 8,513 ton steam turbine cargo ship, in the Royal Albert Docks on…
DetailsThe Study Block After morning Divisions it was off to the study block for three forty-minute periods before break, two more before lunch and two in the afternoon except Wednesdays and Saturdays, which were half days, except for sporting activities. In the Michaelmas and Lent terms afternoon lessons were after sports and, in the summer,…
DetailsArrival “Royal Navy or Merchant Navy?” “Merchant Navy, sir”, I replied. The new intake of self-conscious thirteen-year-old boys had arrived at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, in their naval uniforms with their parents as cadets RNR in the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd September 1955, a day before the remainder of the College, writes Robin Paine (55-58).…
DetailsI can tell you that there were no doors, or loo seats for that matter, in the heads of the Crystal Palace. You should find the whole history of the Crystal Palace in Lionel Stephens’ history of the College of which I have a copy at home, but I will not be there until Monday.…
DetailsCan anyone jog my memory (for the History of Pangbourne book) about the former public loo at the centre of the College known as (I think) the Crystal Palace? Why was it so named? Anything particuarly memorable about it? Did it have doors, for example, on the stalls? In case older OPs don’t know, this…
Details4th Former Tom Armstrong wrote this poem (below) titled ‘Jubilee’ in 1992 to mark the College’s 75th anniversary: “Pangbourne College is seventy five The spirits are high, the staff still alive, Old in foundation and loyal to the Queen, And the hardy traditions of merchant marine. “Up here on the hill the Band marches still,…
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