Jonathan Haigh (FS 54-58) writes:

“I was shocked by the tragic death of Patrick Short, and pleased to see the obituary of him in January’s Old St Beghian. Although I did not know him particularly well at school, while he was at Sandhurst I invited him over for a mess dinner at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where I was studying for an electrical engineering degree. He came by train, and we enjoyed the sumptuous dinner in the Painted Hall and the jollifications in the bar and skittle alley afterwards. By then it was too late for trains and the necessary connections to get him back to Sandhurst by the time he had to be in (I can’t remember now whether it was midnight or 1.00 am, or something like that). Exceptional measures were required, and one of my naval colleagues came to the rescue with his 1933 open Aston Martin. I went along too, and we made it through the Sandhurst gates in the nick of time – no breathalysers in those days!”