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The Bordenian – Issue 74 1964-65

Notes and News

AUTUMN TERM, 1964

At the opening of the year we welcomed five new members of the staff : Mr J T Macrae, an Old Bordenian, who returned to teach Physics; Mr T J Cross – Geography; Mr D L Davies – Spanish; Mr C A Mills – Latin; Mr A W Clayton – Physical Education.  M Akhurst was appointed School Captain, with Ansell, Blackmore, Fowle, Jordan, Oates, Priston, Smart, Stanley, G. Taylor and Walker as Prefects.

Soon after the term opened we joined with the Girls’ school in a performance of “Patience”.

The Sixth Form Science Conference was again held.

During this term the “Sunny Smiles” collection for the Dr Barnado’s Homes passed the £100 mark.

Mr Bates produced this year’s school play: “One Way Pendulum” by N F Simpson.  This recently written play was a box office success, and was judged to fulfil its description as “a farce in a new dimension” although many were left pleasantly puzzled.

Akhurst, who captained the 1st XI Football team, was picked with M Wilson to represent Kent Grammar Schools.  We offer our congratulations.  P Taylor captained the 2nd XI.

SPRING TERM 1965

Akhurst captained the 1st XI Hockey.  The 2nd XI was again without a definite captain.

This term – for the first time – a House Weight-Lifting Competition was introduced.  We hope to see the new enthusiasm continued next year.

Mr Lancaster organised the Arts Festival.  Poetry reading was introduced as a new event.

In the Hockey Festival the school celebrated as the School XI beat Chatham House and went on to win the tournament for the first time in some years.

The Prefects played the Girls’ School at hockey – a memorable if not too serious match.

The two school journeys at Easter were to Czechoslovakia with Messrs. Davies, Howard and Sowden, and to Devon with Mr Veal and Mr Cross.

SUMMER TERM, 1965

Akhurst captained the 1st XI Cricket, whilst D Wood was captain of the 2nd XI.

Parents day enjoyed better weather than last year.  The Junior Play was, for the first time, acted entirely by the 1st form and was universally enjoyed.

The Sports this year were won by Barrow in a very close finish.  Fewer records fell.

Mr Lancaster and Mr Mills are leaving us.  Mr Lancaster will be remembered for his organisation of the Arts’ Festival and his fine innings against the Prefects’ XI, quite apart from the enthusiasm he brought to teaching History.  He is to take up a post in Madeley College of Education, Staffs.

Mr Mills successfully introduced R.I. as a GCE subject in the school.  He contributed to Junior Sport – the Masters will lose another of their outstanding cricketers.  With his B.D. degree he is leaving to take up a post in Redland College of Education, Bristol.

We shall be sorry to lose both Masters and we wish them good fortune in the future.

This year’s Bordenian was prepared and edited by D.Carey, U.6A, and A. Friday, L.6Sc.

 ALAS, POOR YORICK (from Maroon 1972)

“Where be your gibes now?  Your songs?  Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?”

Yorick, of course, was a fully paid-up member of the Old Bordenian Association, and well might you contemplate the wine list which he and many others like him thumbed through annually in the hope that the white-coated Watson would see you, hear you, and sometimes remember to serve you.

Well might you ponder and mourn such desolation.  For here was established the annual reunion dinner presided over in turn by William Murdock, Arthur Claydon, and George Hardy.  Annual dinners in the school dining hall are nothing new – George Hardy saw in the first of our post-war dinners there, and what an occasion that was!

Bull restaurant - now Roman Square

But it is at the Bull, somewhere among that rubble and debris, that Yorick lies buried with the applause, the crepe-paper Association colours, and those damned seagulls circling eternally the foam-flecked rocks in their huge gilt frame behind the main table.

Seagulls or not, how I long for a taste, once again, of that tomato soup in the days before Heinz had learned to count up to fifty-seven.  How I savour another cut of that roast beef, which had not been processed, pre-packed, and reheated, served with a searing portion of that genuine horseradish sauce which scoured your nostrils like sandpaper.  And when the vegetables came late – as they always did – there was the ever attendant head waiter Kirby, in tails, quietly assuaging with hotel Hilton grandeur until you felt that, for you, delay was a personal service.

Those were the days when the after-dinner speech, like good vintage port, mattered, and when heckling was looked on disdainfully rather than encouraged.  There was time then for a vote of thanks to the Press, and time too for their response; a time when local journalists actually attended and reported the proceedings, and took care to see that initials were right, let alone their shorthand.  Those were the days of Dawkins and Taylor, and of raconteurs like Tempany, and of Old Bordenians like Yorick.

They were also the days of Sarah the receptionist; the long-legged, tall and enigmatic Sarah, who nested with a telephone in a little glass and wood panelled partition in a corner of the dining room.  Sarah never did learn to speak quietly, ever, and you had to accept Sarah as you did the less articulate seagulls.

Then there was Gladys who watched us pack her tiny Tudor Bar to capacity, a struggling mass of elbows and liquid reunion.  Gladys it was who indicated when young Yorick had had enough (or too much) and Gladys it was who kept an eagle eye on her son-in-law, Gerald.

Lay down the wine list and leave poor Yorick to his dusty dreams.  There is among that tumbled rubble too much of us.  And when the rafters fell with a crash and the dust rose in choking clouds, had you listened, you might just have heard the last toast of ‘The School’ and, briefly, seen visionary, fleeting figures whom once we knew and loved.

EDITOR (of the Maroon at the time, Denis Jarrett)

Despite diligent research over many years, it is remarkable how many Old Bordenians there were who perished in the 1939-45 War in the service of this Country and yet whose sacrifices remained unrecorded by the School or the Association. As these omissions came to light, their names were added to the old Memorial Honours Board in the main vestibule of the School – until there was no room left for further additions.

Last year, therefore, the Committee decided to put this right, and commissioned a new Honours Board which has now been installed. It contains 42 names in alphabetical order, except for the last one, N.A. Monday, whose death during the War was unknown to us when the new Board was prepared.

 At the same time, it was decided to commission another new Honours Board commemorating those who fell in the 1914-1918 War, and the two Boards are adjacent to each other in the vestibule. We have the names of only five Old Bordenians who are known to have been killed in First World War – which in some ways is remarkable when you reflect on the appalling number of casualties in France, Flanders and elsewhere. However, the School roll was much smaller in those days, and of course at this distance in time we are less certain that our records are complete. If you know of any names not recorded on either Honours Board, please contact the Secretary.

Each year, the Roll of Honour is read out at a simple Service of Remembrance attended by representatives of the Association, the staff and the pupils. It brings home the extent of the sacrifices made by Old Bordenians – mostly young men who in the normal course of events could have looked forward to years of fulfilment like most of their more fortunate contemporaries. [Editor's note: The annual Service of Remembrance will be held on 19 September 2009 this year.  A short article of the Service will be posted.]

Why not add the answers, using the comments box below, for the benefit of those of us struggling with the questions! Please note – comments will not appear instantly as they will need to be accepted by one of the website team, generally in the evening.  Click on each page to expand to full size; click on the Close button in the bottom right corner to return to this page.  More to follow.

David Palmer

The next photographs show the old school at different times and a little detective work will enable the reader to put them into chronological order. I have tried to take contemporary photographs but much of the school field has been built on to provide private housing taking up the whole corner of the plot bounded by the original road up to the school, Riddles Road and College Road. Hence I was unable to get wide views.

At the time of writing, I have not been able to identify any of the internal rooms mentioned in “Vale”.  I am finding that the more I write, the more there is to investigate. I do not think of time as the enemy but it certainly seems to ‘fugit’ very rapidly! 

 The photo above shows the cricket square in good condition but I think the outfield would have caused a bit of a problem!

              
The last photos below are of the Headmaster’s house and garden at the east end of the school with its own lean-to greenhouse.

The modern photos were taken on 25 March 2008. The buildings are now used as the Sittingbourne Adult Education Centre having previously been the Kent Farm Institute and a Teacher Training College.

Article by John Macrae

One of the sheets shows an Old Boy production (The Maroon Players).  Whilst preferring the sports field to the stage during my school years, I do remember another Old Boy production – a Revue which was a mix of comedy sketches and musical items – in which I did participate along with Greg Pope, Ian Baron, John Ford, Roger Barber, Nigel Gregory, Adrian Robson and others who have slipped from my memory banks.  Whenever we had a delay behind the curtains we sent “Robbo” out to tell a joke and keep the audience amused.  The Arts Festival, now long gone, brought trepidation to those who “volunteered” to recite a piece in a foreign language, often not sounding like one taught at Borden,  or to sing using musical scales rarely heard before.

Perhaps those of you more actively involved in these events can send in your own memories.

Peter Lusted