Richard Anderson to retire

Richard Anderson has been teaching Modern Languages (French and German) at Boston Grammar School since 1971 and in doing so has inspired generations of Boston "lads" as he would call them. But his real lasting impression on those lads has often been from extra-curricular activities, having supervised clubs on topics from Cross Country to Subbuteo, and from model Railways to German.

It's difficult to choose where he has made the greatest impression but some of the highlights would be:

• Leading the Charity Club to raise thousands of pounds for all sorts of charities
• Leading the Schuhplattler Gruppe to perform its German style dancing at home and abroad over 700 times including appearances on television
• Leading lads to success in General Knowledge local, regional and national competitions
• Leading the Grammar Gazette to be what I understand is the longest running school student run newspaper in the country (I stand to be corrected if that is not the case)

And now, having easily passed the historical teaching retirement mark of 60 (thanks to government policy), Richard is preparing to put down his red pen for the last time, retiring on 31 August 2014, so the current term is his last as a teacher.

Some of us have contemplated in the past what Richard would do after retirement. Once when I asked his friend and former colleague, Ron Abbott, if he could contact Richard for me (before the age of school email addresses), he said that short of throwing a rock with a message attached over the school wall there wasn't much he could do. So dedicated has Richard been to the school, or really more accurately to "the lads" (although some are in fact now "lassies"), and the hours he has put in are surely matched by few in any profession.

In fact Richard's plans for retirement are to split his time between Boston, where he has made many friends, and regularly meets former students, who he calls "blasts from the past", the North East, his home territory and still home for one of his brothers, and Germany, where his other brother lives. Let's hope we continue seeing Richard around for many years to come and let's wish him a very happy retirement!

The Silicon Process

The next in a series of recordings made of school bands by Ron Abbott in glorious mono on his reel-to-reel tape recorder has now been published to the web.

This time the band in question is The Silicon Process. If you look at the OBA Wiki article, you will see that information is scant so far. I believe the main members we the Ashberry family, but whether all three (Simon, Tim and Jez) were involved or not, I don't know, nor do I know whether any "non-Ashberries" were involved.

I've picked up a couple of track titles from the recording, but any more information would be very welcome.

If you want to read a little more about the band then you can go to the OBA Wiki and follow links through to YouTube, or if you're impatient to see what they sounded like, you can go straight to the recordings on YouTube.

2014 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner - report

Back row: Aaron Rymer (BGS student),
Harry Tebbutt (BGS student), Ellis Potter (BGS Head Boy);
Front Row: Catherine Wolfe-Smith (guest speaker's wife),
Richard O Smith (guest speaker),
Peter Sharman (OBA President)

The 2014 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner took place on 22 March at the Boston and County Club. As has become traditional, the evening started with about an hour in the bar, giving time for people to meet old acquaintances and make new ones.

Pete Milsom had brought a photograph of the Boston Borough Council taken in 1964. His father, who was a councillor and in the photograph, had listed most of the names but as was customary at the time, he had noted everyone as "Mr so-and-so". Pete wanted first names. Even I managed to fill in a couple of them, but Tony Austin provided the majority and I believe most of the rest were filled in by others.

The OBA President, Peter Sharman and I had a bit of a nail-biting time while we awaited the arrival of Richard O Smith (BGS 1975-1982), the guest speaker and his party: his wife Catherine, and Matthew Ledbury (BGS 1980-1985). They did indeed arrive in time and we were very relieved.

It  was good to see current BGS staff member, Richard Anderson at the dinner, together with his former colleagues, Ron Abbott, Rod Dunn and Nick Fitton.

OBA President, Peter Sharman

The Boston and County Club as usual came up with a very pleasant meal which was efficiently served. After coffee, Peter Sharman proposed the toast to The Queen, and we had a short break for refilling glasses.

Guest speaker, Richard O Smith
getting animated

Next came the speech by guest speaker, Richard O Smith. Richard was very entertaining, speaking about his lack of academic achievement at school, moving on to working in a pet shop, and then to writing obituaries for The Boston Standard, and on to his current work, writing books and script writing for radio and TV. Although he continued to speak for well over his allotted time, most people who expressed an opinion to me said they could have happily listened for longer. As is customary, Richard finished with a toast to The School.

BGS Head Boy, Ellis Potter

The response on behalf of the school is usually provided by a member of staff but this year it was ably handled by Head Boy, Ellis Potter. He spoke of the challenges of the year, including the flood of December 2013 and finished off with the traditional toast to The Old Bostonian Association.

There were 52 people present at the dinner. Unfortunately Bill Olle, who had also booked a ticket, was not able to be present due to last-minute family commitments.

Ron Abbott	Viv Hammond	Colin Pickwell
Richard Anderson	Andrew Hladun	Ellis Potter
Jill Austin	Lee Hoff	Reg Preistley
Tony Austin	James Hopper	Peter Rawlings
Mark Bruntlett	Derek Howard	Aaron Rymer
Ian Carrott	Stuart Hunt	Peter Sharman
Colin Clark	Luke Johnston	Don Sharpe
Colin Cumberworth	Andy Lawrence	Catherine Smith
George Danby	Stan Lawrence	Bill Stanwell
Pearl Danby	Matthew Ledbury	Bob Stanwell
Rod Dunn	Mark Locking	Harry Tebbutt
Jim Ely	David May	Paul Timby
Ben Evans	Simon Meeds	Pat Walters
Ian Fisher	Stan Meeds	Pat Welberry
Nick Fitton	Pete Milsom	Roger Welberry
Gus Goor	Sue Milsom	Adam Woods
James Greenfield	Richard O Smith
Chris Hammond	Trevor Page

Catherine Wolfe-Smith (guest speaker's wife), Aaron Rymer (BGS student),
Harry Tebbutt (BGS student), Peter Sharman (OBA President),
Ellis Potter (BGS Head Boy), Richard O Smith (guest speaker)
I'm not sure of the relevance of the t-shirt

Ron Abbott listening intently
to Nick Fitton

Rod Dunn at the centre of the action

Nick Fitton

Chris Hammond (BGS 1961-67)
brought his old school tie,
scarf and cap!

Guest speaker, Richard O Smith
and his wife, Catherine

Reginald Bosanquet Swing Band

I recently obtained recordings of several school bands from the 1970s and 1980s which were made by Ron Abbott in glorious mono on his reel-to-reel tape recorder. I hope to make all of these recordings available publicly for the first time.

The first fruits of this effort is in the form of the Reginald Bosanquet Swing Band, recorded at the BGS Follies of 1979. The BGS Follies were an annual talent contest at Boston Grammar School, and the story goes that it was this performance that caused the headmaster, Arthur Shrimpton, to cancel future events of this kind.

The members of the band were Keith Phillips (drums), Tim Loake (lead guitar), Dick Green (rhythm guitar) and Bill Dunham (vocals).

If you want to read a little more about the band then you can go to the OBA Wiki and follow links through to YouTube, or if you're impatient to see what they sounded like, you can go straight to the recordings on YouTube.

(Note that the graphic shown here is not the band's own logo, but rather just something I have designed to give the YouTube videos some character)