Leadership Top-flight career by royal appointment
K ing Charles’ flying instructor, Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth II, Service Adviser at Downing Street, RAF Station Commander, and Old Boy, Group Captain Philip Pinney has achieved much during a remarkable career. Philip was educated at Waihi School (1949–1952) and Christ’s College (1953–1957) before winning a scholarship to the RAF College at Cranwell, where he was awarded The Queen’s Medal and other prizes on graduating in 1960. Recalling his time at College, Philip has praised the “brilliant legacy” of mathematician Allan Ramsay, who taught at Christ’s College from 1957–1974 and was often described as a “gifted teacher of gifted boys”. Philip also thanked Headmaster Harry Hornsby for “making me a Prefect, helping me win scholarships, diversifying my skills, and giving me a real sense of purpose to contribute to society and succeed in the wider world”. Among his fondest memories
were “Sundays spent cycling up to the Sign of the Takahe and around the tops to descend into Sumner at 50mph, evenings away from Flower’s House at lively Maths Society meetings at other schools”, and Harry Hornsby allowing two boys to fly an aircraft to Tekapo “as long as we did not drive together to Harewood”. Philip believes that his class of 1953 has achieved at least 25 PhDs, with another 40 rising to high positions in fields of law, academia, medicine, and dentistry. Among these “major achievers”, Philip highlights former Cabinet Minister, entrepreneur, and business leader Philip Burdon, former Environment Court Judge and New Zealand’s first Chief Freshwater Commissioner, Peter Skelton, former diplomat Hugo Judd, haematologist John Pettit, and research scientist Adrian Wallis, to name a few. Philip left College before the end of his final term to fly Harvards
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