The Certificate above will definitely not be handed out to Old Boys coming to next year’s Dinner, but that should not stop you coming.  So, dependent on your age, mark it in your diary, filofax, calendar, laptop or tie a knot in something, and then contact your Old Boy colleagues and encourage them to come along.

Next year’s guest speaker is Crispin Humm MBE who left Borden in 1994.  It would be good to see a good crowd of his contemporaries at the Dinner.

More details will appear on this site in the New Year.

Peter Lusted and Mike Pack

Great War Remembrance Board

A service of remembrance took place at the school on Saturday 12 November 2011 during which the refurbished war memorial boards were re-dedicated by former Headmaster Bryan Short.

The boards, the subject of a recent highly successful appeal by the OBA for the £3,000 cost of refurbishment, were the centrepiece of this year’s remembrance service, now being run by the OBA committee. The OBA veterans, who were the originators of the annual event, were represented this year by Denis Jarrett (RAF) and Geoff Hattie (Army).

Second World War Remembrance Board

Other conflicts Remembrance Board

Relatives of Lt Barry, who lost his life at Cassino, Italy, in a particularly important strategic battle

More than 40 people were present to honour the school’s war casualties, many more of whose names now appear on the boards than originally, following research undertaken by old boy Marc Stewart that revealed many more old boys had perished in the two world wars and other conflicts than had been thought.

Representatives of the school at the re-dedication service

Barry Gilbert, Ken Sears and Marc Stewart - OBA committee members. Marc Stewart carried out the extensive research noted above.

Chris Laming

Those of you who thought it was photos only this year will be disappointed!

After Mike Pack had received a flurry of very late bookings making it 74 for the night, Saturday May 14th saw us enjoying the usual convivial atmosphere helped along by the traditional meal and bar.  We may adopt the Ryanair method of fluid pricing in future – early bookings at bargain basement prices, last minute decisions the sky is the limit!  We will of course adopt as well the client care charter – never mind it’s only a customer!

The new Memorial Boards depicting those Old Bordenians who died during the two world wars and other conflicts were on display in the hall, and around £800 was raised during the evening as a contribution towards the cost of these.

Our guest speaker this year was Graham Barnes. A stalwart of both the school and the Association over many  years, he has been both a School Governor and the OBA Vice President.  As always, Graham kept us thoroughly entertained and amused during his speech.  Typically, in the past I have scribbled notes on the nearest clean napkin during the speeches so that, provided I can subsequently read them without the alcoholic haze, there is a semblance of accuracy when I summarise them in the annual report.  This year Graham has kindly given me his written speech to make my life easier.  However, who am I to decide what should be left in or removed from such an excellent speech?  It seems only fair that those who were absent can read it in its entirety, and those who were present can be reminded how much they laughed.  So, at the risk of embarrassing Graham, the whole speech is shown after the list of attendees.

In response to Graham’s toast to the School and the Association, Harold Vafeas, our President, said how good it was to see OBA and school supporters together again, and thanked the Association for their financial contributions to such things as the stage lighting, the multi sports area and the library.  Details of the school’s academic successes could be found on the Old Boys website in his Prize Giving Day’s speech, so he intended concentrating on sporting and cultural matters.  Last summer the under 13 cricket team won the Kent Cup Final when chasing over 180 runs in 20 overs.  The BGS squash team entered the National Schools Championship and reached the last 32 by winning their group which included beating Coopers and Coborn, and Kings.  In the knockout rounds they then defeated Charterhouse but lost 2-3 to Eton.  The annual musical – Jesus Christ Superstar – had been revived and was very successful.  Whilst the school is not perfect it , and its 800 pupils, continue to thrive.

Finally, thanks are due to Mike Pack (the other half of the Dinner team) for all his sterling work, Barry Gilbert for helping set up on Saturday morning, Dave Palmer for being chief photographer, Cliff Cork for again arranging the bar, Tracey in the school office for doing all our printing, and Tim, the school caretaker, for all his help and support.

Peter Lusted

At the Dinner were:-

1940‘s – Denis Jarrett, Ray Hill, Graham Barnes, Bill Usher, Ken Sears, Jim Cox, Bob Doucy, Brian Tyler, Ken Heaver, Stanley Evans, Frank Cassell, Richard Dowding, Peter Bedelle,

1950‘s – Andrew Edney, John Godfrey, Alan Hill, Tony Akehurst, Sean Caveney, John Faulkner, Ian Hazell, Terry Saunders, Ivor Jones, Roy Brunsden, Alan Eyles, Neil Hancock

1960‘s – Rick Harris, Tom Frewen, Clive Eglinton, Steve Goodhew, Greg Pope, Mike Pack, Peter Lusted, Ian Baron

1970‘s – David Webster, Mike Dixon, John Dowding, Terry Roberts, Lee Harding, Keith Shea, Andy Bushell, Dave Palmer, Dave Spicer, Bob Field, Steve Crick, Robert Kemsley, Jonathan Brownridge, Phil Bryant, Stewart Jarrett, Paul Fletcher, Tim Ford, Paul Bedelle, Rob Dammers, Greg Barry, Nick Lee, Keith Tummon, Peter Vujacovic, Terry Whitehead, Andrew Newman, Giles Ford

1980‘s – Philip White, Douglas Greenwell, Greg Illsley

1990‘s – Stuart Williams, Adrian Rose, Matthew Nelson, Stephen Baron, James Love

2000‘s – Marc Stewart, Christian Collins

Governors/Staff -Harold Vafeas, Phil Bromwich, Bryan Short, Marion Minhall, Ruth Minhall

Graham Barnes’ speech

At this Dinner last year, a number of you, banished out there to the outback, complained that you sometimes had difficulty in hearing the speaker.  This year, I promise you it will be different.  There will be an avalanche of complaints because you can hear the speaker.  So please shout out if you are having a problem – I’ll try to lower my voice to the point of inaudibility.

A couple of weeks ago, in vacant and in pensive mood, I was lying in the bath – reflecting on how I missed jail, actually.   Because I’d missed it by a hair’s breadth.  Several times in my career.  But I also began wondering what on earth I could talk to you about tonight.  Pete Lusted had already warned me that it would be considered very bad form if I were to re-use old material, so that eliminated my special subject – the Life and Times of Carlos V of Spain.  And also my other public speaking standby for these occasions, a recital of the first 33,000 decimal places of pi, which tends to becomes somewhat repetitive, especially when I get to .333 recurring.  That left me with only one option : nostalgia.   So that’s what you’re in for – an orgy of nostalgia.

Funny word, nostalgia.   It comes from the Greek nostos = a return, and algos = pain.  A return of pain.  We were never taught Greek at Borden, which is a pity – because basically it’s a very easy language.  Nearly all the words ends in ‘os’, and it is possible to guess the meaning of most of them – as all you seasoned travellers in the Greek Islands will know.  There’s Asbestos – rather unhealthy – and Thermos –  rather hot ; Pichantos – which entails a somewhat hazardous boat trip to get there ; Hyglos – much favoured by painters ; Albatros – much favoured by golfers ; Mossbros – a bit too dressy for my liking ; Schlos – full of German tourists ;  Candyflos – which is really rather sweet ; Pathos and Bathos – sad and disappointing ; and Deadlos – which you should avoid at all costs.

Anyway, back to nostas and algos – a return of pain. If I start with Sheerness, then nostalgia is definitely the right word.  The brainchild of Samuel Pepys, the naval dockyard was protected in due course by a fort at Garrison Point and by a defensive canal against land invasion from the East, built mainly by French prisoners-of-war, which stretches from Bartons Point all the way to Westminster.  This shows that idiocy is by no means a new phenomenon in the Procurement Department of the Ministry of Defence.  Those wonderful folks, who nowadays build aircraft carriers which don’t have aeroplanes, spent a fortune on a deterrent which would never be needed  – because, as anybody who has been there will tell you, an invader landing at Leysdown would want to evacuate the Island as quickly as possible – not to conquer more of it.

I mustn’t be too hard on Sheppey.  It has many redeeming features – for instance, er, er, er……I know one : they had a very good football team.  Not in my time they didn’t, but they did once.  No less a luminary than Herbert Chapman, the great Arsenal Manager, played for Sheppey United.  By the time my father used to take me to watch them at the Botany Road ground on Saturdays, their skill levels had declined somewhat.  You were allowed to watch the team practise on Wednesday evenings without charge.  It was very entertaining.  One of their routines was to dribble the ball round a line of dustbins.  On one occasion, I remember the dustbins winning 9-nil.  The lack of playing success was reflected in declining gates, so to augment the Club’s funds, they used to hold a weekly ‘Spot-the-crowd’ competition.  You had to put an X where you thought he was standing.

One of Sheerness’s more famous sons was Dr Beeching.  If he used to travel  each day on the 8.23 from Sheerness to Sittingbourne as I did, that would explain why he developed a lifelong hatred of railways and why the Beeching Report proposed the abolition of most of them of them.  Belching smoke and smuts the size of conkers, the train used to grind its way over several thousand points to Queenborough, and then past the Sheppey Glue Works sufficiently slowly for the carriages to absorb its unspeakable odours.  It was possible to dispel most of these by using the sophisticated manual air conditioning system.  This consisted of a blind, which, if held out like a sail from an open window, acted as an air deflector.  The trouble was that, if everyone did this simultaneously, the train was brought almost to a halt by the increased coefficient of drag.  That’s not true, of course, but I thought a scientifically-erudite phrase such as ‘coefficient of drag’ would add an element of plausibility to the story.  .

We had another science lesson when we arrived at Sittingbourne, and at the same time the sensuous thrill of seeing the Dover Express come through the Station at full pelt.  After rounding the bend a mile to the west,  Arundel or Sir Gallahad gathered speed, increasing in size exponentially, and roared towards us breathing fire and brimstone.  The platform shook with seismic violence as several hundred tons of steel thundered through, and the sustained shriek of the whistle gave us a vivid demonstration of the Doppler Effect which, of course, was the only reason why we stayed to watch.  It  shows how hungry we were for knowledge.  By the way, we had carriage prefects for the journey – to supervise the bullying and make sure it was done efficiently.   Minimum scarring,  maximum pain.  Some of them could have taught the guards at Guantanamo Bay a thing or two.

My schooling at Borden was neatly segmented.   I had 2 years of peacetime education from 1937 to 1939, followed by five years of war,  in the middle of which I was whisked off to South Wales for two years.  You might think this segmentation was disruptive, but it didn’t particularly seem so at the time.  Most boys are astonishingly adaptable.   And any changes later were as nothing compared with the original culture shock of my first day at Borden.   The School was totally different from anything I anticipated.  My expectations of “big school” were based on what I read – avidly – about Greyfriars in The Magnet comic, and the exploits of Billy Bunter, the so-called “Fat Owl of the Remove”.  I had already learned the necessary vocabulary : midnight feasts in the dorm, impots, phrases like “I say, you fellows”, expressions of pain such as “Yarooh” (inexplicably “Hooray” spelled backwards), and so on.  The reality proved to be very different.

For one thing, the Sixth Formers were all 8 feet tall, the staff 10 feet and the redoubtable Head, William Claydon, 12 feet.  That was because he invariably strode through the corridors wearing his mortar board.   At least that phenomenon was something I recognised from Greyfriars, together with the convention of calling each other only by our surnames.  Claydon introduced several public school  features during his headship, including the Harrow School song “Forty Years On”.  We never had anything like that at the Broadway School in Sheerness.  The lyrics of “Forty Years on” contained one memorable but slightly baffling line – “the tramp of the 22 men”, which we sang with more gusto than comprehension.   The same song was adopted by Napier High School in New Zealand, but they changed it to “the tramp of the 30 true men” in recognition of Rugby Union, and at Melbourne High School in Australia it became “the tramp of the 36 men” in honour of Australian Rules Football.  I always thought “the tramp of the 22 men” referred to one of my classmates, who often turned up on the cricket field wearing grey flannel trousers instead of whites.

Probably the biggest change from primary school was what we were taught and how we were taught it.  I still have several of my School notebooks, and when I look at them, I am absolutely amazed at what I learned and what I have forgotten.   A history notebook, for example, tells me that in AD 593 Ethelfrith became King of Northumbria.  Not a lot of people know that.  To achieve anything in life, let alone kingship, with a name like that is no mean achievement.  Fancy calling your child Ethelfrith!  Ethelfred, perhaps – particularly if you were in some doubt about the child’s sex.  It would be quite useful to be able to call somebody ‘Ethel’ or ‘Fred’, depending on how things shaped up.   But Ethelfrith? With a name like that, you couldn’t possibly become the eponymous hero of a novel or play.  Shakespeare simply could not have written “Ethelfrith and Juliet”, could he? – nor could Juliet have asked “Ethelfrith, Ethelfrith, wherefore art thou Ethelfrith?”  Especially if her dentures were ill-fitting.

Another pearl of knowledge.  Did you know that if you add sodium chloride to silver nitrate, thanks to a process known as ‘double decomposition’, you end up with sodium nitrate and silver chloride?Now there’s a thing.  It’s a good job this kind of anarchic behaviour takes place only in the surreal world of the chemistry lab, and not in real life.  Otherwise, if you were anticipating a meal of fish and chips, for instance, and rhubarb and custard, you could end up with fish and custard, followed by rhubarb and chips.

In addition to erudite and arcane subjects like Chemistry, we were also taught grammar and spelling – not just in English Language lessons, but in almost everything we wrote and spoke.  Some people dismiss these as unimportant, but I certainly don’t – and I make no apologies for that, because I think they are essential for clear, unequivocal communication.  An example of what otherwise can happen was provided by Spike Milligan, who received a letter from a fan asking for a ‘singed photograph’.  True to form, Spike signed one of his photographs but before sending it and set fire to the perimeter.  His covering letter said “As requested, I am enclosing a singed photograph”.  The fan replied, thanking him profusely for his kindness, but added “Unfortunately, the photograph appears to have been signed all round the edges”.

At the heart of this transfer of knowledge were the teachers themselves – for the most part highly dedicated and very good at their jobs.  Nowadays, OFSTED inspectors tend to give Brownie points to those teachers who vary their techniques – class or group discussions, for example, or role playing or learning-by-teaching, which is widely employed in Germany.  At Borden, the teachers used to get up in front of the class, tell us things we didn’t know and explain things we didn’t understand.  I don’t see a lot wrong with that.   In that Pantheon of fabled names – Alan Highton, Roy Hill, Jimmy Howard, Sniffer Snelling, Reg Goff, Cliff Beer, Stan Ashby and Greville Tempany,  to which one can add the names in later years of people like John Weekes, Terry Veal, John Macrae. Bob Sutton, Marion Minhall and many others – I suppose the archetypal exponent of orthodox didactic teaching was George Dawkins, the father figure of the Old Bordenian Association.   He used a method known to educationalists as ‘discovery teaching’.  If you didn’t do your homework properly, you soon discovered you’d get a detention, and if you misbehaved in class, you discovered you were on the painful receiving-end of a well-aimed piece of chalk.  Nowadays such methods might be frowned upon, but he taught Sir Stanley Hooker who ended up as Technical Director of Rolls Royce.  He also taught John Macrae, and inspired John’s lifelong passion for physics.  So perhaps there was something in the old ways, after all?

And it’s on that note that I want to end my nostalgic rambling.  Deep down, I suspect that the main  reason why many of us are here tonight is our affection and respect for, and gratitude towards, those who taught us – not just academically ; not just in extramural activities like drama, amateur radio, astronomy, debating, and so on ; but by the values which motivated them and by the example which they set.  I know I shall always be profoundly grateful for what Borden did for me, and I doubt whether I am alone in this room feeling that way.   May I invite you, therefore, to rise and join me in the toast of The School and the Association.

Graham Barnes

To access a pdf version of this document, click here

Click here for a larger version: Old Boys reminder 2011 dinner

The club is at the corner of the High Street and St George’s Avenue with parking a bit further down the High Street (turn right at the lights if coming from Halfway, the car park is then on your right).

Full bar facilities are available, plus a good selection of wines at reasonable prices.  Please note it is not permitted to bring your own drinks for consumption on the premises.  The menu is below.

The Sheppey dinner has become a popular event in the Old Bordenian calendar, so if you have not attended in the past, why not come along, meet old friends and perhaps make new ones!  You can be sure of a warm welcome, good food and a few laughs!

If you know any Old Bordenians who might be interested, ask them to get in touch with me.  The dinner is open to all Old Bordenians, not just the Sheppey Old Boys.  I do hope you will be able to join us.  To reserve your place, please complete the details below and post, with a cheque for £16 per person, to me, Neil Hancock, 20 Uplands Way, Minster, Isle of Sheppey, Kent ME12 3EH, by Wednesday 10 November 2010.

Neil Hancock

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To: Neil Hancock, 20 Uplands Way, Minster, Isle of Sheppey, Kent ME12 3EH

Please reserve ______ places at the Sheppey Reunion Dinner on Saturday 13 November 2010

I enclose a cheque for £____ payable to N Hancock

Name:

Address 1:

Address 2:

Postcode:

Email address:

Tel:

Years at school (start & finish years):

Special Dietary Requirements:

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MENU

Seafood Platter

*****

Leek and Potato Soup

*****

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Roast and New Potatoes

Selection of Seasonal Vegetables

*****

Sherry Trifle

*****

Cheese Board and Celery

*****

Coffee and Mints

Mick Pack, John Miles, Dave Carey, Peter Taylor…..Barry Roberts, Steve Goodhew, Peter Lusted

Nick Verrall, Alan Snelling, Barry Roberts……Mick Pack, John Miles, Martyn Calder, Dave Carey, Peter Taylor, Phil Bromwich

Barry Gilbert, John Faulkner …………..Ian Hazell

Clive Eglinton, Rick Harris, …….., Ken West

(if you can fill in the gaps, please email the Webmaster)

Not easy to identify from the small picture – click to expand!  I’ll attempt to describe who is where!  From the back of the picture, underneath the left hand honours board, scratching his head – Andy Bushell; to the left of the right hand honours board, back to the camera, is Bob Field, with Nigel Dickson just under the bottom left corner of the Board; Cliff Cork is facing the camera, adjusting his tie.  On the next table nearer the camera (and facing the camera) from right to left is Bryan Short, Marc Stewart, Ken Sears and Stanley Evans.  In the foreground on the far right is Graham Barnes; seated at the table nearest the camera on the right is Greg Pope; standing on the far left, back to the camera, hands clasped behind his back is the Headmaster, Harold Vafeas.  All others either unclear or unknown.  Happy to add names if anyone can fill the gaps!

Having feasted on roast beef, apple pie and cheese and biscuits Chris Laming, our new vice president, made a presentation to Rick Harris for all his hard work as Membership Secretary, a post from which he had now retired.

Our guest speaker, Robert Dammers, then spoke of the influences on his life from before Borden through to his current role at Shell. His Dutch parents had introduced him to the world of music (his mother) and the world of Shell (his father). He went to Tunstall school which was fed by many a “Shell” child and then joined Borden in form 1X, a new class due to the growing school intake. He had taken part in many musical productions, many in conjunction with Highsted, and had recently visited Frank Nichols, a former English master at Borden who was now 92. Having joined Shell in their agri-chemical research at Sittingbourne, he moved to Amsterdam and Aberdeen with them before being nominally based in London for the last 10 years. In concluding he asked everyone to raise their glasses to Borden for the important influences it had made on all our lives.

In response Harold Vafeas, our President, said that Sittingbourne had benefited from the presence of Shell which had brought a mix of people to the town as well as many with a university education. In school life it continued to be difficult to convince 15 and 16 year olds that an academic education was important, but the 2009 “A” level results showed Borden 7th out of 39 for average points gained. There was now the green shoots of a music/drama revival in the school, an annual panto and the Battle of the Bands event where he felt there were too many bands now taking part. The Old Boys Association was an important part of the school community and invited 6th formers had especially been grateful for the privilege of attending the Memorial Service in September. He was grateful for the donation of funds from the Old Boys and mentioned the examples of the new play area, the library and the 6th form common room to which they had contributed. With the recent introduction of seating contemporaries of the speaker on the top table he had the opportunity to meet more Old Boys, and was pleased to also see a former Head and three governors of the school present.

Thanks as always are due to Tim, our caretaker, for all his hard work, Barry Gilbert for his help in the morning, Cliff Cork for organising the bar and Graham Barnes for being our MC. Photos of the evening can be seen on the site.

Next year’s Dinner is on 14 May 2011 – make a note and spread the word!

Alan Snelling, Mike Pack and Peter Lusted

At the Dinner were:-

Harold Vafeas, President

Robert Dammers, Guest Speaker

Phil Bromwich, Nick Verrall, School Governors

1940ʼs - Bob Doucy, John Bishop, Brian Tyler, Denis Jarrett, Ken Heaver, Ray Hill, Derek Munson, Graham Barnes, Ken Sears, Stanley Evans, Frank Cassell, Peter Bedelle

1950ʼs - Andrew Edney, Alan Hill, Barry Gilbert, John Faulkner, Brian Pope, Will Cassell, Ian Hazell, Terry Saunders, Ivor Jones, Neil Hancock

1960ʼs - Rick Harris, Ken West, Clive Eglinton, Peter Taylor, Dave Carey, Alan Snelling, Martyn Calder, John Miles, Steve Goodhew, Greg Pope, Barry Roberts, Mike Pack, Peter Lusted

1970ʼs – David Highton, Cliff Cork, Lee Harding, Keith Shea, Andy Bushell, Dave Palmer, Dave Spicer, Bob Field, Steve Crick, Robert Kemsley, Nigel Dickson, Chris Laming, Nigel Balm, Ken Beach, Phil Nye, Stuart Gay, Paul Bedelle, Stephen Bedelle, Greg Barry, Peter Vujacovic, Terry Whitehead, Nick Lee, Andrew Newman,

1980ʼs – Trevor Ottoway, Duncan Reed, Chris Terry, Tim Chandler

1990ʼs – Richard Parkin, Peter Parkin

2000ʼs – John Friday, Anthony Eldridge, Matthew Freeman, Sam Barnes, Paul Hayler

To be photographed wearing an Old Boys tie:-

a)   In an alcoholic establishment

b)  In an unusual or bizarre situation (we will exercise censorship controls!)

Have Old Boys drunk in all corners of the world?  Let’s see the evidence.

What:    The current (on the left) or earlier Old Boys tie

Where: Anywhere – the further away the better

Who: Old Bordenians around the world. Young Technos, old non technos.  Will the Facebook crowd put in an appearance? 

How: Send your photo with your name, when you were at school, and what you have been up to since leaving to :-admin@oldbordenians.co.uk