Courtenay Latimer (43-47) died suddenly on 12 September, 2011, aged 78.


Known as Corky, he enjoyed his time at the NCP and left Pangbourne to do his national service in the Army, writes Lionel Stephens. Commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps, Courtenay hoped that his love of boats and his nautical background would enable him to join Water Transport. Instead he was sent to Berlin where he was put in charge of the Havel Water Base during the vital Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. Late in life he published a detailed account of this episode in a book facetiously titled "My Struggle with Jospeh Stalin."

After national service Courtenay became a yacht broker working in the City of London and later from his home in Woodbridge. In 1959 he sailed to New Zealand with a dozen others in the 70ft Aberdeen Anzac motor fishing vessel. Years later, in 2004, he wrote an account of this unusual voyage in a memoir titled "Creeping Up On Auckland."

Courtenay had a fantastic memory for detail and was great company. He loved keeping in touch with events at the College and attended the OP Reunion lunch in Lavenham in 2007.