We have been sent a couple more items to remember Barry Gilbert who died in March

It is with deep regret that we report the death of Barry Gilbert, who passed away on 24th March. Barry joined School in September 1949 and left July 1956.

The OBA Annual Reunion Dinner will be held at UK Paper Clubhouse, Avenue of Remembrance on Saturday 24th March 2018. We are now taking bookings online and via post.

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.

More than 30 relatives, pupils, governors and old Bordenians attended this year’s annual service of remembrance on Saturday 11 November 2017, for the 104 former pupils of Borden Grammar School who lost their lives in two world wars and other conflicts.

OLD BORDENIAN ASSOCIATION

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.

Dear Old Bordenians,

I am delighted to be working with the committee, school and members of the OBA to help us to become more relevant to the people we represent going forwards.

Our objective is to focus on driving membership, providing help where we can to those just leaving the school, and networking & social engagement opportunities for all.

We have already made some changes, with the removal of the annual subscription and a move to voluntary contributions to assist our funding. There is more detail contained in the AGM Minutes on the web site: OBA AGM Minutes 2017.

For those of you who are in and around London, we are looking to meet up for informal drinks in the London Bridge area on Friday 24^th November. It would be great if you could rally some past school friends and come and join us. If you are interested, please email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so I can get an idea of numbers and then I will confirm the venue.

Finally, a big thanks to those who have been doing so much work for the OBA behind the scenes over the years.

Regards to all

Mark Bailey

A recent email alerted us to the fact that, despite the sterling work carried out over the past few years by Old Bordenian Marc Stewart to identify all those Old Bordenians who have been killed whilst on active service, the names are not available on the website.  This article rectifies this oversight.  This document provides a full list of those casualties: BGS War Casualties

An article was published in a recent edition of the local newspaper, the Sittingbourne News Extra, showing the new boys of 70 years ago!  This is reproduced below (with acknowledgement to SNE):

Click here to read the minutes of the 2017 OBA AGM.