Timothy E.H. Hendley (49-53) died in the United States on November 21, 2024, aged 88 as the College was informed in late-2025. He left four children and eight grandchildren and was characterized in an obituary as “a cherished father, brother, grandfather and friend to many.”

Entering the Nautical College in Winter term 1949 from a Sussex prep school with a view to a career in the Royal Navy, Tim rose to become a Cadet Captain in Hesperus division, a member of the Sailing team in 1952 and 1953 and one of the Rugby 1st XV in 1952 and 1953. In his first season in the 1st XV, a report in The Log labelled him as “a most astute and resolute blind side” wing forward with much potential.

Qualifying for the RN Secretariat Branch, he did his national service in the Navy but contracted polio while visiting Christmas Island and spent nine months recovering at a medical rehabilitation centre at RAF Chessington. That experience ended his RN aspirations and instead he joined Barclays Bank in 1956, later moving to its colonial arm Barclays Bank DCO. Managing to secure a posting to the Bahamas, “I accepted sharpish” as he put it in a notable 1992 contribution to the ‘Pangbourne Made Me’ series in the OP Magazine.

In the Bahamas Tim for a time enjoyed the bachelor life before marrying the niece of his boss. The couple moved to the U.K. in 1963 but did not settle. Three years later he spotted an opportunity to return to the Bahamas and landed a job with the American company Resorts International which was in the process of opening the islands’ first casino. This proved to be a success, but in 1977 the casino licence expired. Transferring to the USA, in 1981 he began working at Resorts International’s recently opened casino in Atlantic City; he remained there until he retired in 2001.

In retirement Tim explored the back bays of New Jersey in a fibreglass 26-foot Contessa sailboat (always flying the Devitt & Moore house burgee at the crosstrees), wind surfed and visited some of the world’s least-explored regions including South Georgia and Antarctica, Nepal and Tibet. In 2001, with another OP, John Maltby (48-53), he joined an expedition to Everest spending three days at 17,000 feet at Base Camp. Here he unveiled the D&M house flag for an “official” photograph.

Always a loyal OP, Tim crossed the Atlantic to attend the 50th Jubilee Dinner of the OP Society at the College in 1998 – “it was definitely worth a trip…a superb evening.” Assessing his own career in his 1992 article for the OP Magazine, he described it as “Just a fairly ordinary life with no great achievements, nor any great failure either.” A succession of posts by former work colleagues on Facebook following his death told a very different story with one describing him as “the nicest guy I ever met”, another as “a good man” and a third as a person who was “always a calming influence, ready with a kind word.”