by Dave Palmer
June 16, 2011 in Guest Posts
Further extracts from emails sent by Edwin Westacott (1940-47). Editor’s note: the years refer to the time Edwin was at school, not when he sent the emails!!
On a visit to his son in the USA in the autumn of 2010
by Dave Palmer
December 1, 2010 in Obituaries
Len Grice, who died on December 23rd 2009 at the age of 86, was born in Sheerness and started his education at a school whose headmaster was Mr Bryceson, father of Leslie who became a lifelong friend. At eleven, Len went to Borden Grammar School and thoroughly enjoyed his years there. In his autobiography, which he wrote for his grandchildren when he could still see, he said that “to have been able to go to Borden Grammar School was a great privilege – and a handful of outstanding teachers helped me enormously.” He was involved in sport and in music (he played the trumpet in the orchestra) as well as academic work and achieved excellent results in the Higher School exams in 1941.
by Dave Palmer
August 26, 2010 in Guest Posts
After a career in teaching and a long flirtation with the French way of life through a house in the Perigord, Edwin Westacott (Borden 1940-45), together with his wife, Jan, went to live permanently in 2004 in a small village named Pointis-Inard, deep in the South of France not far from the Spanish border. Readers of The Maroon will be familiar with a number of articles which he contributed over the years, and which were memorable not only for their content but for their style. They were full of self-deprecating humour and keen observation.
Over the past two years or so, he and Graham Barnes have exchanged sporadic emails – usually commenting on all the trivial things which now fill their lives. Graham thinks that Edwin’s stories and anecdotes deserve a much wider audience and has persuaded Edwin, very reluctantly, to agree to the publication on the Website of a few of the choicest examples. They are not only very funny but detail experiences with which many of us can identify, despite not living in France.
by Dave Palmer
July 10, 2010 in Obituaries
Bob was a pupil at Borden Grammar School from 1941 until 1948, after which he did his national service in the Army, and then went on to Cheltenham College for teacher training. His teaching career began at Borden Village School, followed by a spell at Middletune School and ending with roughly 20 years at Holy Trinity Primary School, where he was Deputy Head.
by Dave Palmer
May 14, 2010 in Down Memory Lane, Guest Posts
In establishing a Remembrance section of the website, the Association pays tribute to those pupils of Borden Grammar School who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the many freedoms we enjoy today, not least the freedom from tyranny. All of us will have glanced up at the names listed on the school’s war memorial boards but how much do we know about the men themselves? When, for example, did they attend the school and what were the circumstances of their deaths?
by Dave Palmer
March 30, 2010 in Obituaries
We very much regret to announce the death on 13th March 2010 of John Lifton. He was at Borden from 1939 to 1945, and spent much of his life in New Zealand where, despite the geographical handicap, he remained an enthusiastic Member of the Association.
by Ryan Jarrett
January 23, 2008 in Guest Posts
This is a guest post by Old Bordenian Graham Barnes, who attended Borden Grammar School between 1937 and 1944.
Recently there was yet another call for a higher ‘usefulness’ content in the school curriculum. I say ‘yet another’ because this has been going on since my boyhood – and that’s a very long time ago indeed. This time, the suggestion was that 10-year olds should be taught, amongst other skills, how to repair a motorbike, if you please!
In my day, Latin was always a prime target for the utilitarians. “Of what use is Latin?”, the cry went up. “It’s a dead language, and of no value at all, unless you are going to be a doctor”. I was always puzzled by that proviso. When did a medical practitioner last tell you that you had a sexually-transmitted disease in Latin? And if he were to commit this information to paper, you wouldn’t be able to decipher his hand-writing anyway.
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