From a discussion on Facebook in January, 2014: “I recall one incident towards the end of Peter Points’ time in situ when locals decided to ring the bell outside Devitt tower in the middle of the night during exams. Needless to say the boys chatted. The next evening as the car turned up and someone…
DetailsFrom a discussion on Facebook: “Peter Politzer’s wife was defintely not Polish. Karen Politzer was German, like me and my German teacher. Peter Politzer was a very good Housmaster but not always appreciated because he was quite strict. He understood that his job was not to be our best budy but to get us through…
Details“Are you wondering who was the first girl? I can easily answer that as I started in September 1990 on my own. Charlotte Butterworth followed the subsequent term in January 1991, with Susie Kenwright coming into the year below us the following September… Charlotte and myself wore the College uniform. Mine was hastily put together…
DetailsTony Hopkins (38-42) recalls: My time at the College, 38/42, does seem quite a long time ago! On my first voyage to sea with Blue Funnel in June, 1942, we went to New York. There I visited the “British Apprentices Club,” a suite of rooms in the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street run by a…
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Another ‘Forgotten OP’ My father George Grandage attended Pangbourne from 1918 to 1920 and spent much of the pre-World War 2 years in the Merchant Navy, mainly in the Orient Line on the UK to Australia run, writes his son Jerry Grandage (53-58). He joined the RNR in 1924 and after several periods of RN…
Details“We knew Ashley Potter at school as “Shags”, which related purely to his adolescent complexion,” writes Bill Bailey (58-62) “Apart from being the founder and leading light of the college jazz band during my era (’58-’62), which he named “Brother Ashley’s Superior Jazzmen”, he was an extraordinary athlete. I recall “Shags” being so far ahead…
Details“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…
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