The Old Bordenian Association

This is a summary of what Bryan Short said at Terry Veal’s funeral on Friday 16th April :

 ”I often think that people fall into two categories : those who seek to achieve fame as an end in itself (a good example is Disraeli), and those who want to do something in this world. Without doubt, Terry belonged to the second category .

He was an activist in the most modern of ways, and he showed this right from the beginning. He was captain of his school, and a sergeant-major in the cadet corps, in which role he made the boys jump! He was a fast mover ; whenever there was a problem, you knew Terry was either there or on his way there to sort things out. In his Methodist Church, he held almost every office except that of Minister. There are two kinds of Methodists: Cornish Methodists, and the rest! Any preacher who is invited to speak to Cornish Methodists had better be good! Terry remained very loyal to Cornwall and he never lost his soft, Cornish accent. At the same time, he took a keen and detailed interest in Kent history – he knew a great deal, for instance, about the Sheppey Light Railway.

‘I worked closely with him for over 30 years, for 29 of which he was Deputy Headmaster. We never quarrelled. He was not a confrontational sort of person – he always remained reasonable and composed – but he was a deep thinker. He invariably came up with points that others hadn’t thought of, and that was partly because he was so thorough. George Hardy told me that, well before I arrived, KCC engineers produced a plan for rewiring the School. Terry examined it in painstaking detail and produced several suggestions for improvements which the experts readily accepted. He was good at everything he set out to do.

Apart from his intelligence, he was a splendid sounding-board for the ideas of others. And he was intensely loyal. Schools are often a hotbed of gossip and rumours, but they never started with Terry As the staff discovered if they tried to extract information from him, he never betrayed a confidence.

While he continued to return to his Cornish roots, over the last 20 years or so, he and his wife developed a great affection for France. They often stayed at our cottage in the Vendee, and even when he was no longer able to make the journey, he frequently visited the town’s website – and only recently gave me a picture which he had downloaded showing the local beach, a beach full of happy memories for us, covered in snow. I shall cherish this. Terry was one of my best friends.  His wife, Yvonne, and all his family are assured of our love, in their efforts to deal with this terrible loss”.

Terry Veal came to Borden in 1958 and stayed there until his retirement in 2000. I left the School as a pupil long before he arrived, so I must make way for others to bear testimony to his legendary gifts as a teacher. I had the great good fortune, however, and the privilege (and it certainly was a privilege) of working quite closely with him for several years when I was Chairman of the Governors’ Finance Committee, and he was, in effect, the financial director of the School. I was going to say that he was the Vince Cable of Borden, but that would be to sell him short. He had a huge fund of common sense, and a complete grasp of the financial problems of what was, in practice, a medium-sized business. Unsurprisingly perhaps, he had a great ‘feel’ for figures, the sort of gift that becomes increasingly rare the more we rely on calculators. He knew instinctively when something wasn’t quite right, and it was impossible to fault his forecasting abilities or the way in which he exercised financial control. If only he had been Chancellor or the Exchequer for the past ten years….

He always made a point of attending our Annual Reunion Dinners, where the affection in which he was held by generations of Old Bordenians was obvious. In all the time I knew him, I never heard Terry say a bad word about anybody, nor did I ever hear anyone speak other than warmly about him. He was a gentle man in every sense, and we are all the richer for having known him.

Graham Barnes