The 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,…
DetailsI attended Pangbourne in the 1950s and although I haven’t tried to keep in touch over the years I’ve been receiving OP material such as the Pangbournian, writes Jerry Grandage (53-58) from Australia. When I read in the 2012 issue that the OP Society was requesting material for a new history of the College I…
DetailsI’ve come across the expression “Bart’s Arse” in an OP from the 1950s describing his time at the NCP, writes Robin Knight (56-61). I think it refers to the steep hill from the College down into Pangbourne village, but can anyone confirm this please?
A poem from The Log in 1927 under the heading ‘NCP Rhymes’ “I am a broken College grid, Left to rust in a wayside ditch. I ended life in a greasy skid; I am a broken College grid. My owner off his saddle slid And had to take his bags to Stitch. I am a…
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