Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 2016 - Report

As expected, there were fewer attendees at this year's old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner than at last year's. It was still a very respectable attendance of over 70 people; about average for the last few years.

Because of the reduced numbers we returned from the BGS assembly hall of last year to the comfortable surroundings of the Boston and County Club, near to the main entrance of Boston's Central Park.

People started gathering in the bar at 6:30pm and after a while there was quite a crowd and the volume was increasing.

Three of the five members of 1967 school band,
Gotham City were together for the first time in 49 years:
David Wortley, Ty Dalby and Nick Flynn

Past OBA President, Tony Austin
and his wife, Jill

George Danby and his wife Pearl
with Ken Newham

Pat Everitt and David Wilson

While we were all in the bar, Peter Milsom produced a painting by former BGS staff member, Hubert "Tilly" Turpin (BGS 1927-1964), asking what the subject might be. I have since confirmed that it is Ely Cathedral.

Once the OBA President, Peter Sharman had worked out that the PA was indeed piped into the bar, he managed to call everyone through to the dining room at about 7:30pm for an excellent and well waited meal.

The top table, left to right: Thomas Vamplew (BGS student and quiz scorer), Smilte Matutionyte and Joe Dean (students and OBA museum curators), Peter Sharman (OBA President), Brig Bill Dunham CBE BSc (guest speaker), John McHenry (BGS head teacher), Harvey Potter (Head Boy), Damian Austen (Deputy Head Boy)

After dinner there was a short break before the speeches: time to mingle again.

Bill Stanwell and Stan Lawrence

Rod Dunn

David Wookey and Scott Palmer

Nigel Wainwright and Harvey Potter

Ken Newham and Pete Milsom

Pat Welberry and Gus Goor

Jim Ely and David May

After a brief introduction and loyal toast from OBA President, Peter Sharman, Richard Anderson took the microphone to introduce our guest speaker, Bill Dunham (BGS 1972-1979). Bill joined the Royal Marines in 1979 straight from BGS and had a long and varied career including command at every level up to Brigadier. His Career culminated in roles as Commandant of Commando Training Centre, as Chief of Staff of the NATO Training Mission in Kabul and finally Deputy Commandant General. He left the Corps on 31 March 2015 and now works as the Director of Strategy and Corporate Services at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Peter Sharman

Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson

Brig. Bill Dunham

Bill's speech was entertaining and thought provoking, relating with stories both serious and funny how his time at BGS and in Royal Marines training informed his later career, and indeed lessons real and tongue in cheek that we can all take from his experiences. He then went on to propose a toast to The School.

The response was provided by BGS head teacher, John McHenry, who acknowledged that the recent Ofsted report of the school indicated that continued improvement was necessary but balanced that with an explanation that while the inspectors had to show three years of improvement, they acknowledged the last two showed an "upward trajectory". On the specific point made about the behaviour of students, he made a good argument that the two incidents referred to in the report were not significant. He also noted that the school is an academy but that the current drive is for schools to be involved in multi-institution academies. This need not mean the school being swallowed up into a larger organisation but does mean it needs to select partner schools, and select them wisely.

Brig. Bill Dunham

Bill Dunham and John McHenry

John McHenry

The official business was brought to a close by the Head Boy, Harvey Potter, who spoke of his view that speaking at the OBA Annual Dinner was one of the highlights of his year in office. He also acknowledged the honour he felt in following his brother Ellis Potter into the role; Ellis gave the response to the toast to The School at the dinner in 2014.

Those who attended the dinner were as follows.

Ron Abbott	(73/98 Staff)
Richard Anderson	(71/14 Staff)
Toni Anne Pain	(Guest)
Damian Austen	Deputy Head Boy
Jill Austin	(Guest)
Tony Austin	(56/62)
Pauline Borrett	(Guest)
Robin Borrett	(92/94 Staff)
Mark Bruntlett	(78/85)
Marcus Cain	(81/89)
Colin Clark	(51/58)
Tyrone Dalby	(58/66)
George Danby	(59/64)
Pearl Danby	(Guest)
Jack Davy	(02/09)
Joe Dean	Student – OBA Museum
Bill Dunham	Guest Speaker (72/79)
Rod Dunn	(66/96 Staff)
Dan Elkington	(97/03)
Jim Ely	(59/64)
Pat Everitt	(74/81)
Ian Fisher	(83/89)
Nick Flynn	(60/66)
Jamie Forman	(78/84)
Gus Goor	(57/62)
Nick Hiom	(85/90)
Andrew Hladun	(74/80)
James Hopper	(83/91)
Robin Jackson	(59/65)
Luke Johnston	(02/09)
Philip Johnston	(70/77 Staff)
Andy Lawrence	(75/82)
Stan Lawrence	(45/50)
Mark Leggott	(75/81)
David Lenton	(62/68)
Mark Locking	((82/89)
Smilte Matutionyte	Student – OBA Museum
David May	(60/64)
John McHenry	Head Teacher
Simon Meeds	(76/84)
Stan Meeds	(38/43)
Pete Milsom	(61/66)
Sue Milsom	(Guest)
Darren Mitcham	(82/89)
Ben Mountain	(87/94)
Ken Newham	(41/46)
Sara Nicol	(Guest)
Trevor Page	(49/55)
Scott Palmer	(87/94)
Keith Phillips	(72/79)
Colin Pickwell	(60/65)
Harvey Potter	Head Boy
Reg Priestley	(45/46)
Peter Rawlings	(53/58)
Peter Sharman	OBA President (59/64)
Don Sharpe
Bill Stanwell	(43/47)
Bob Stanwell	(54/61)
Don Stimson	(51/56)
Judy Stimson	(Guest)
Thomas Vamplew	Student – OBA Quiz etc.
Nigel Wainwright	(77/14 Staff)
Pat Walters	(82/89)
Pat Welberry	(59/62)
Roger Welberry	(56/60)
Ken Whittle	(52/89 Staff)
Pat Whittle	(Guest)
David Wilson	(74/81)
Stephen Wood	(01/08)
Catharine Woodliffe	(Guest)
Stephen Woodliffe	(88/06 Staff)
David Wookey	(81/89)
David Wortley	(59/66)
Richard Wray	(56/61)
Tony Wright	(78/84)

Philip Johnston (BGS headmaster 1970-78) with Brig. Bill Dunham

Flood update and calling all furniture makers

The OBA mini-museum
adjacent to the school library

As has already been said on this blog, the president's flood appeal was very successful with about £2600 being raised. The aim is for this to go to making some minor improvements to a neglected part of the school and leaving a permanent reminder of the flood - things which wouldn't be covered by insurance payouts.

Somewhere on or near the library a place will be found for a brass plaque to indicate the level reached by the water. The rest of the money will be spent improving the entrance to the library - the small room giving access to the yard, library, quad and current careers room. The aim is to provide display cases and seating allowing this to become a comfortable meeting area for students, and a place where the Old Bostonian Association can exhibit artefacts and photographs and, we hope, increase awareness in the school of our existence, how we can benefit the school and what we do with and for our members.

The President, Peter Sharman, thought it would be particularly nice if we could find an appropriately skilled Boston Grammar School former student to make some high quality furniture for this project. So, if you are a cabinet maker, or know any other old boy who may be able to step up to the plate, please contact Peter Sharman at president@bostonian.org.uk.

On the OBA dinner weekend (21 March) I was pleased to be able to examine the progress in cleaning up the school following the flood. The OBA mini-museum seems pretty much back to normal, with the display cases having been re-varnished and looking like new. It seems that most of the major work in the library is complete. While books need to be returned to the bottom shelves of their cases and tables cleared of the repair company's boxes, the parquet floor, which had lifted, has had each block refinished and replaced. Apparently only one small parquet block from the floor went missing and it has been replaced with a new one. Even the long-neglected entrance, described earlier in this article, is looking pristine. The floor there too has been refinished and partly carpeted. Everything is looking great. Apparently the assembly hall was not seriously affected but the 1970s gym will probably need to have its floor replaced. Even the old science block in the yard has apparently had a much-needed lick of paint.

I had heard that the flood deposited a large amount of shingle on the sports field but the full story was much more interesting. Apparently the force of water had lifted a drain cover, which had long been covered in grass and entirely forgotten, causing the shingle to explode forth. The existence of the drain cover was only discovered when the shingle was moved away. I suggested that it may have been the Bar Ditch, an ancient waterway which runs under the school, but apparently this is not thought likely.

Letter from the President

For this blog entry, I will hand over to Peter Sharman, President of the Old Bostonian Association. This formed part of his "Letter from the President" in the recent copy of The Old Bostonian magazine. The news that Peter describes has its negative side but please bear with it; it's not all doom and gloom, and we really could do with your ideas. It's easy to leave a comment below this post, or any other on the blog where you can think of something the Old Bostonian Association could do for you, or something you could do for it!

The last year has not been an easy one for the Old Bostonian Association. The Social sub-committee have worked exceptionally hard but with very little support from Members. We held a highly successful Charity Ball last year raising over £3000, which was equally shared between School Funds and St Barnabas Hospice. We then embarked on arranging a follow up this year and were very confident of having another sell out. Unfortunately this was not the case and after selling only around 85 tickets we reluctantly had to call it off thus depriving The School and this year’s charity, Linkage Community Trust, of valuable funds. An outing to the Shakespeare Theatre at Stamford and a Tour of the Wolds were also cancelled for similar reasons. The Social sub-committee have now decided there is very little point in trying to arrange further events and have resigned en-masse although they have all, thankfully, agreed to stay on the main Committee. We do realise that many of you would like to show your support but for either health, geographical or other reasons find it impossible. Perhaps you, the Members, have some ideas on how we can best take the Association forward. It does seem increasingly difficult to attract new members. I personally think this may be due to Social Media. It is now so easy to keep in touch through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Peter Sharman, President of the Old Bostonian Association

It is worth mentioning that this does not affect the OBA Annual Dinner, OBA v BGS Snooker or OBA v BGS Quiz, which have all been successful events in the past and will continue to be held. See the OBA Diary for more details.