• From April 12, 1990

Praise was heaped on Tiffin schoolboys after they calmed passengers and comforted the elderly on board a blazing cross-Channel ferry.

The party of 11- and 12-year-olds were trapped for a whole night on a dark and smoke-filled ship, but were said to have “responded magnificently”.

Back in Kingston, teachers frantically telephoned Brittany Ferries for information and reassured parents who feared a disaster.

The 43 boys were on their way back from a trip to St Martin de Brethal in France, and caught an afternoon ferry sailing from Caen on the Reine Mathilde.

Party leader Peter Lewins said some people had reported large amounts of smoke belching from the funnel, but the first warning something was wrong was when the engines suddenly cut out.

The five teachers rounded up their charges in two areas.

By this time the ship’s fire doors were shut and smoke from a raging blaze in the engine room had filtered into the passenger decks, which were lit only by emergency lights.

Mr Lewins told the Surrey Comet some boys were “a bit uptight” because they had not seen their friends, but that there was no panic.

He said: “The boys were tremendous – they got some blankets and started distributing them to elderly people on their own initiative.

“They were very level-headed and very sensible. If you had had the same number of adults you would have had more panic.”

The crippled ferry was towed into port the next morning and the Tiffin coach headed for home, but not before pupils had collected charred pieces of the funnel as souvenirs.

Relieved parents were waiting in the school hall when the boys arrived, and applauded as they were led in by the exhausted Mr Lewins.

He told one mother: “We counted them all out, and we counted them all back in again.”

  • 50 YEARS AGO: April 14, 1965

The growing popularity of the Thames was demonstrated 50 years ago when the number of vessels on the river exceeded 20,000 for the first time. Before World War I there were 15,000, and immediately before World War II, 12,000.

  • 25 YEARS AGO: April 12, 1990

Kingston nightclub Options was voted best disco in London by Club Mirror magazine. It overcame competition from clubs across the capital, which were judged on their facilities, food, drink and overall management. Options is now the Pryzm club.

  • 10 YEARS AGO: April 13, 2005

Kingston Hospital bosses were in talks to try to avoid a £6.5m deficit. One trust director called the wrangling “a 10-month nightmare”. A debt of £5.4m for the previous year was cleared by regional health bosses.