On Friday 19 May 2017, a small number of OBA committee members gave a presentation to Year 13 school leavers, outlining the benefits of membership of the Association and its relevance to school leavers as well as older former students. The presentation is available here: OBA presentation to school leavers - May 2017.
All the pictures taken at the Annual Dinner on 25 March 2017 have been uploaded to the OBA Flickr site - click here for OBA Dinner 2017 - Flickr album . This site makes it easier to view, enlarge, etc. the photos.
The 2018 Annual Reunion Dinner will be held on Saturday 24 March 2018. Please note this date in your diary! Further details will be announced in due course.
Continuing the series of articles produced by Norman Wigg (see Recollections of the Battle of Britain below), here he recalls his days at the school.
For the next five years, I caught the No26 bus from Teynham, to Sittingbourne, getting off at the post office, then walking up through the alleyway past the Bull Inn, to arrive at the Grammar School. In the evening, I caught the bus outside Burton's to return to Teynham. As my father was a bus driver, I got a cheap season ticket, but that was about all the financial help my parents did get. I cost them a lot of money, in the next few years, but they never complained.
We have received the following employment opportunities for current pupils at Borden Grammar School from a local Insurance Broker, based in Oad Street, Borden.
The Insurance Broker contacted us back in 2013 and 2015 with similar opportunities. Neil Barlow, director of the company, now has a further opportunity for two apprentices to start in the summer. Neil is also offering work experience opportunities for 1 or 2 weeks. Neil has written to the School and the Association with the following offer:
We have recently heard that Graham Holbrook (BGS 1955-62) has passed away. Graham was admitted into the Canterbury Pilgrims Hospice on Friday 17th March and he passed away peacefully early on Monday morning 20th March 2017, with his family by his side. The date of the funeral is 4th April 2017 at 2.40pm at Barham Crematorium, Canterbury Road, Barham, Near Canterbury, Kent, CT4 6QU.
All are very welcome to join the family afterwards at Olly's old watering hole, the Anchor Public House, at the far end of Abbey Street, Faversham, ME13 7BP. Should you wish to attend a reply of numbers would be gratefully appreciated. Please email the OBA at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we shall forward the information to Graham's family.
Graham is pictured in the 1956-57 Form Photo on the OBA website below (1956-57 Form Photo). He was known as "Fish" Holbrook....as his family ran the wet fish shop in Sittingbourne High St. From school he joined the RAF and followed that up with a varied career in business and consultancy.
We sadly heard of the death of Freddie Cooper many months after the event. He had been a regular at the Dinner for many years with a group of his contemporaries.
His son wrote to us:-
"Thank you for sending the latest edition of the Old Bordenian Website Digest. My mother forwarded the digest to me today and remarked how much Freddie enjoyed receiving and reading the various articles.
My father Freddie Cooper, d.o.b 13 February 1923, died peacefully on 7th July 2016.
Freddie was at Borden GS from 1934 to 1941 and continued to attend the annual old boys' dinner until the age of 84 years old. He always spoke with great affection for the school and appreciated the excellent education and start in life provided by Borden. Freddie joined the RAF in 1941 and gained his wings in 1942 and was fortunate enough to continue flying with the RAF until the early 1960's, retiring as a Squadron Leader in 1966."
The 2017 Dinner saw 59 of us enjoy a convivial evening and excellent meal at the UK Paper Clubhouse, Sittingbourne. The guest speaker was Phil Bromwich, a regular at the Dinner and a school governor for 25 years during five of which he was the chairman.
Richard Evans has sent in the names of those in the School Photograph for 1956/57. I have added these as a comment to the original article: BGS School Photograph - 1956-57.
Old Bordenian Norman Wigg (BGS 1943 - 1948) has sent me a number of articles recalling stages of his life, including his experiences of the Battle of Britain whilst living in Teynham and his days at Borden Grammar School. I will add these over the coming weeks, but will start with his recollections of the Battle of Britain. Whilst Norman was too young to be at BGS at the time, I think this will be of interest to many visitors to this site.
Norman writes: