Fifty six Old Bordenians attended this year’s annual dinner at UK Paper Clubhouse in Avenue of Remembrance, Sittingbourne, including retired headmaster Bryan Short and the vice-chair of school governors, Phil Bromwich.
This year's Annual Reunion Dinner will be held on Saturday 5th March. The guest speaker this year will be Old Boy Stephen Bedelle who is a veteran of the Falklands Conflict and who served in the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy for more than 40 years. Full details and how to book your place are contained in this document: Dinner_Invitation_-_2016.pdf. Please book by Saturday 20th February.
The 2016 Annual Reunion Dinner will be held on Saturday 5 March at UK Paper Clubhouse, Avenue of Remembrance, Sittingbourne. The Bar opens at 6.00 pm, dinner at 7.00 pm.
The cost is £20 per head to include dinner and coffee. Phone Chris Laming on 07736 728744 to book your place now.
Guest speaker: Steve Bedelle
As many of you may know, Ken Sears (who died last autumn) was very closely involved with St. George's Memorial Church at Ypres ; he was a Friend of St George's, edited their monthly magazine and led many annual pilgrimages there. As a tribute to him and because we felt it was a worthy thing to do anyway, the Association has arranged for the erection of a brass plaque in the Church commemorating those Old Bordenians who were killed in WW1.
As promised in my last article, here are photos from this year's Annual Reunion Dinner, held on 7 March 2015.
A total of 54 Old Bordenians gathered for the Association’s annual dinner on Saturday 7 March at UK Paper Clubhouse in Sittingbourne.
Update - a report on the Annual Dinner will be updated shortly. Watch this space!
This year we are changing the way that we notify Old Boys about the Dinner:-
1. Emails will be sent to all OBA members where we hold your email address.
2. Letters will only be sent to those Old Boys, who are members of the OBA, who have attended the last two dinners.
3. A Dinner Letter is available to download on this website.
In the past an invitation letter has been sent to all OBA members but taking into account that the majority do not attend the Dinner, this has been a considerable cost to the Association which will now be saved.
Our aim for future Dinners is to switch across to electronic notification as quickly as we are able.
Peter Lusted
To download the letter: Dinnerletter2015.pdf
Looking back 25 years, it transpires that our guest speaker at the 2015 Dinner, Dennis Fowle, contributed an article to the Maroon that year. With apologies to Dennis if he planned to use this article as the draft for his speech!!
For the past few months, Colin Wiles and Bill Bailey have been organising a reunion to "celebrate" leaving Borden Grammar School 50 years ago.This took place on Friday 6 June 2014 and Bill has produced the following report of the event:
More than 60 Old Bordenians met on 22 March at UK Paper clubhouse in Sittingbourne for the 2014 annual reunion dinner of the Association.
Additional photos from the occasion are included below - click on each of the "thumbnails" to expand to full screen.
Old Boys will come together for an evening of convivial enjoyment on Saturday 22 March 2014 for the annual OBA dinner, taking place at UK Paper Clubhouse in Avenue of Remembrance, Sittingbourne. Tickets are £22.50. This year’s guest speaker is Leslie Olive, a former BGS music master who is now a professional conductor of some of the UK’s leading orchestras. We shall also be joined for the first time by Jonathan Hopkins, our new President and head teacher at Borden Grammar School. Download the attached dinner invitation for full details and ticket application instructions. Click here for OBA Dinner Invitation 2014
I (Andrew "Bill" Bailey) have kept in touch with quite a few OB's who left school in 1964 and, with the approach of the 50th anniversary of our release into an unsuspecting world, have lately made a concerted effort to round up as many of my former colleagues.
Old Bordenians will be interested in the forthcoming challenge being undertaken by pupils and staff. They are trying to raise as much money as possible for a charity which is very close to our hearts since we received the news about Harold Vafeas's (Headmaster) illness last summer (http://websites.bordengrammar.kent.sch.uk/site/index.php?option=com_rubberdoc&view=doc&id=427&format=raw). If you are able to support this in any way they would be very grateful.