The Old Bordenian Association

This continues Barry Gilbert’s story of life in the Police Force.  For the first part, see http://www.oldbordenians.co.uk/down-memory-lane/a-police-odyssey-january-1957-august-1992/.

My next period of service began with a move in April 1965 to the newly formed Traffic Division Garage in Bow Road in the East End of London, within the sound of Bow Bells.

The area has a very colourful history and a drive along Bow Road and Mile End Road through Stepney and Whitechapel towards the City of London was a history lesson in itself.

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Following the addition of the history of the Football Club recently, it is worth visiting the link below to a recent article in the East Kent Gazette referring to the Club in the 50′s and 60′s.  Dick Day and Ashley Read have contributed their memories and refer to Brian Tyler, still a regular at the Annual Dinner, who was still performing in his forties when I first started playing for the Club whilst still at school in 1967.

Let’s hear from other former players with tales of skill, artistry and football magic!

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/east-kent-gazette-the-sittingbourne-uk/mi_8114/is_20100414/football-memories-flood/ai_n53161632/

Old Bordenian Dennis Fowle, now of East Farleigh (Maidstone), tells the story of his life in journalism and newspapers in a book published last September. He recalls his years at Borden (1945-51) and how headmaster George Hardy helped and encouraged him so much in the sixth form before he was offered a chance as a junior reporter in Sittingbourne office of the Kent Messenger in Crown Quay Lane.

Dennis became manager of the Gillingham office at 21 and when he was 26 was appointed news editor of the county-wide Kent Messenger, based at Maidstone. He was there for about 10 years before he left and started a publishing company in London with two journalist friends, producing books, magazines, posters and specialist newsletters.

When he retired from London in his early 60s he started, in 1997, the Downs Mail local newspaper in Maidstone. It began as an eight-pager reaching 12,000 houses around Bearsted. Now it has grown to cover more than 88,000 houses in and around the County Town in four geographical editions and most issues have 56 or more pages. Dennis retired as Editor in Chief at Christmas and there is now a team of 15 working on the newspaper with his daughter Claire in the chair.

His 132-page A4-size book is titled ‘So I Started a Newspaper’ and tells the story of how he developed a unique newspaper which has successfully run major campaigns – including preservation of core services in Maidstone Hospital and the pedestrian bridge over the A249 at Detling (Jade’s Crossing) after an eight-year-old girl and her gran were killed crossing this busy road.

The book includes 24 pages of colour photos showing how the Downs Mail reflects the news and beauty of Maidstone. It is on sale in Maidstone area and available from Dennis at Dalbury, Lower Road, East Farleigh, Maidstone, ME15 OEX at £15 (p/p £2 extra), or email him at dfowle2011@aol.com.

Barry Gilbert, a member of the OBA Committee, attended the school from 1949 to 1956.  This is the beginning of his story of life in the Police Force.

In January 1957 I journeyed to London and enrolled at the age of 18 on a Senior Cadet course at the Metropolitan Police Training Centre at Hendon.

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A member of the OBA committee has passed me a copy of a recent Daily Mail article featuring an Old Boy of the school from the early 1950s.  Dennis Fowle is trying to contact team mates from his former cricket team.  Are you one of those featured?  Do you know any of their whereabouts?  The article is reproduced below.

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By John Macrae

This is the first in a series of articles that you have probably been reading about in the Maroon for some time.  Well, I have finally got round to it in this run-up to Christmas 2007.  I have just finished helping Graham Barnes put the 2008 Maroon to bed, attended the Sheppey Dinner, completed the minutes for the AGM and the recent Committee meeting and organised the mailing of the last Maroon to the Leavers of July 2007.  So with some spare time on my hands I have begun searching the archive for photographs of the School and Old Bordenians.  There is surprisingly little considering there should be more than a hundred years of evidence.  What I have found is a box containing some photographic records that have been collecting dust for some years and the consequent deterioration of the prints.  It was with a matter of urgency that I started photographing this evidence and storing it digitally.  This project alone is time consuming so I decided to combine this work with my Memory Lane chapters to show how Borden has changed and to recall some of the characters who have lived and worked therein.

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