General News & Articles

Allen Whitnell (1965-1972) writes in to come clean on his role in a sporting "mix-up" when the School hosted the Kent Grammar Schools Cross-Country Championship. No names have been changed to protect the innocent or guilty! 

Peter Lusted and Alan Snelling recently found themselves in a pub (no surprise there - Ed) and serendipity connected them with an Old Bordenian. Peter picks up the story:

The Association has been pleased to build closer relations with the School Head since his appointment and this includes a number of Old Bordenians being asked to speak at the School's Annual Prize Giving. 

Peter Lusted writes about a tradition that embodies the OBA spirit:

For the past few years a small group of Old Boys have had occasional meetings during the year culminating in a Christmas meal.  

Old Bordenian Mark Sayer lived in Germany during the 1990s.  As part of his travels through the newly opened Eastern Europe, he visited Auschwitz. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he provides a thought-provoking piece on that experience and his reflections:

We have belatedly learnt of the election of Old Bordenian Peter Butler to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

Peter is Professor of Physics at the University of Liverpool. His election was for his work as an experimental nuclear physicist. For those who may understand it, he studies the phenomenon of reflection asymmetry in atomic nuclei and the structure of the heaviest elements.

It has been reported that the School's old site in Sittingbourne is close to being sold off. Following BGS moving to its current site in 1929, the old school buildings have been used for a variety of uses, latterly an Adult Education College.

Old Bordenian David Highton has recently been appointed as Chairman of Demelza Hospice Care for Children. David has had a long career in the NHS and is also Chair of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust. Demelza provides specialist care and emotional support for children with terminal conditions as well as supporting their families during difficult times.

First of all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2018 to all those chums who may remember me.  Many of you will not associate Christmas with the Asian country I have lived in for now over twenty years.

OLD BORDENIAN ASSOCIATION CHAIR

For my sins, I came on to the OBA committee as the headmaster’s rep, at the request of Bryan Short back in 1969.  Since then, Old Bordenians have attended Annual Dinners, both in Sittingbourne and on the island, organised Dances, performed on stage in Revues, played Football, Hockey and Cricket - all in the name of the Old Bordenians.

There is no contractual obligation to undertake these activities but there is an underlying connection brought about through long standing friendships and memories of the school.  Many have gone way beyond the call of duty: Alan Wilson and his success in making the Hockey club one of the most successful in Kent, organisers of the Dinners and members of the committee, some of whom came on board 40 or 50 years ago.