Complex sentence: To put aside enough money to get himself through art school (his father having refused to fund it), Stanshall spent a year in the merchant navy, where he made a very bad waiter, but a great teller of tall tales.
Split into simpler sentences: To put aside enough money to get through art school (his father having refused to fund it), Stanshall spent a year in the merchant navy. He said he was a very bad waiter, but developed as a great teller of tall tales.