The Old Bordenian Association

Old Bordenians to Veterans to Geriatrics – the boys done good

As early as 1926 it was hoped to start an Old Bordenian Football Club, but nothing materialised.  The first match (apart from the annual game against the School) was played against the Old Anchorians (Gillingham County School Old Boys) on November 5^th 1927, and the return game in March 1928.  The next effort was in the spring of 1930 when three friendly matches were played.

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Recently, a very remarkable Old Boy got in touch with us.  There is nothing especially remarkable about his career : teaching.  What is completely out-of-the-ordinary is where his career has taken him.  He has taught (English) for 5½ years in Saudi Arabia, for 2 years in Spain, for 2½ years in China, for a year in the Sudan, for 5 years in Mozambique and for a brief period  in Afghanistan .  For the past 13 years he has been living in Vietnam with his wife and two daughters.  It was Aristotle who paced up and down in the Peripatus at the Lyceum while he was teaching and created the generic name for an itinerant teacher.  Well, Aristotle – eat your heart out!

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Phil Goldacre was at Borden from 1965 to 1970. Below are stories from the acting world, provided by him following pressure from one of his peers!  Do we have any other Old Boy actors?

Phil begins: Just a couple of stories that I thought you might like. I can talk some more about actual performances if you like [Ed's note - leave a comment at the end of the story if you'd like to hear more from Phil] but I think people might be more interested in the “off stage” bits.

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These pictures may bring back memories for those Old Boys who walked the stage at school, either hoping to be spotted by a Hollywood agent or more likely because it involved extra curricular activities with girls from Highsted.

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

Peter has answered the request for copy for the website by sending in copies of the programme for the 1968 Arts Festival.

This was the last one during George Hardy’s Headship and provides a glimpse of a few of the activities that seemed to take up the whole of the Spring Term.  It was good entertainment value for the whole school as we used to stay in hall after assembly to listen to, or participate in, a number of heats to decide who went on to perform in the Festival show near the end of term.

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2008 Maroon – A tour of the School: memories of Martyn Calder (1962-1969) in response to John Macrae’s article. The articles contained within the 2008 Maroon (including the “Tour of the School”) will be added to the website in due course. If visitors to the site want this to be given priority, please add your comment to the bottom of this post.

A great pleasure to see you and some other old faces (some, of course, older than others!) at the Old Boys’ Dinner.

As promised I am writing to add my own very personal and short term (1962-69) memory of the various nooks and crannies of the school

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