- Founded by Sir Thomas Lane Devitt in 1917 as “The Nautical College, Pangbourne” to train boys to become merchant naval officers, it became Pangbourne College in 1969 and coeducational in 1996.
- The school community is underpinned by its eight “Flag Values”: kindness, resilience, selflessness, moral courage, integrity, initiative, industry and respect.
- Only a few of the pupils go into roles within the Ministry of Defence each year, but the school maintains a number of its naval traditions. Pupils wear a naval uniform with the rank slides of a Royal Naval cadet; dorm rooms are called “cabins”, the kitchens “galleys” and the houses “divisions”. Six times a year, the school hosts “College Sunday” when pupils wear formal uniform and perform in the marching band or march en masse as a school.
- Old Pangbournians include the late Spectator columnist Jeffrey Bernard and Colonel David Smiley, one of the inspirations for John le Carré’s George Smiley.
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