Tim Tilden-Smith (44-46)

Specific memories...I don't think I ever did fire watching from the top of Devitt tower but I know it went on. I do remember that there was an Italian PoW camp on Pangbourne Hill which used to fascinate us. Canadian troops were stationed near the school before D-Day.

We spent a lot of time thinking about food - what we had was poor and there was a lack of it. We got two Mars bars for helping with potato harvesting I seem to remember.

Our focus as boys was totally on the Battle of Atlantic convoys because we were all hoping to go to sea and we knew many OPs were involved. We weren't informed officially about OP deaths but we knew about them.

Everyone of my vintage knew that they would leave the NCP to go to war - it was taken for granted. I left the College a term early with Dennis Scott-Masson in 1946 and joined Shaw Savill in the hope of seeing some action. I ended up being posted to a former German ship that was acting as an allied troop ship.

Looking back, the thing I learned most from the NCP was the need for discipline in life, especially self discipline - and the importance of coping with adversity.