2018 Annual Reunion Dinner Report

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The Annual Reunion Dinner was held on 24th March and after a tour of the School organised by the caretaker Mr Tim Hewitt, the OBs settled into the UK Paper Club.

The Chair, Mark Bailey, welcomed 55 attendees for his first OBA Reunion Dinner. Mark talked about the desire to make the Association relevant and welcoming to OBs of every age and noted that we needed to ensure joiners from every year to keep the Association going. The three current 6th formers who attended (including the current Head Boy) were made welcome and we hope will pass back to their contemporaries the tales of the camaraderie and enjoyment of the evening.

School Headmaster Jonathan Hopkins made a welcome return to the Dinner and it was good to see Jonathan share a table with Bryan Short, who was also a popular guest. The Headmaster spoke about the flourishing health of BGS, highlighting not only the growing numbers of boys and girls at the School, but also the changing working and academic futures this generation of Bordenians face.

After Dinner our Speaker was Dan Germain who spoke about his role in the setting up of Innocent Foods but also, perhaps more powerfully, spoke how the School, its staff and particularly Bryan Short shaped him and provided the platform to launch a successful career. Similar to the Chairman, Dan evoked the need for the Association to ensure it appeals to Old Bordenians of every decade (a quick show of hands from the attendees illustrated we had OBs from most decades since the 1930s attending, but definitely fewer for 1990s onwards).

Apologies were received from Cliff Cork, Roger Goodger, Paul Bedelle, Ian Phelps and Marc Stewart.

The Chairman also reported the deaths during the year of three Old Boys - Tom Field, Tony Akehurst and Andrew Newman – and a minutes silence was held.

Feedback confirmed a great evening was enjoyed, with an excellent speaker who clearly had the School close to his heart. Much was said of the desire to return the event to the School hall and the Headmaster (after a glass of wine) certainly had no objections in principle to this. The Committee will work to see if we can move back to our rightful home in 2019.

We’d be delighted to welcome you to the 2019 dinner and would encourage every member to invite other OBs as guests