With Heartfelt Thanks

With HeartfeltThanks

We are so very grateful to everyone who pledges their support to the School and would like to express our thanks to those who made a donation last year to the BMS Bursary Fund after receiving their summer issue of Eagle News. Every gift we receive really does make a difference to students, both collectively and individually, both now and in the future.

If you would like to speak to someone about how you might wish to support BMS please contact Julie Ridge, Director of External Relations, at jridge@bedmod.co.uk or (01234) 332524.

Remembering BMS in Their Wills

Legacies from two OBMs will be put to good use in very different ways in the coming months in line with the individual wishes of the benefactors.

Richard Wildman (1956-65)

was the OBM Club Secretary and School Archivist from 1997 until 2016. Richard died in 2018. He left a sum of money to fund a prize in his father’s name, Sidney Victor Wildman, to be awarded to a sixth form student who intends to read chemistry or mechanical engineering at university. OBM Sidney Wildman (1932-39) MBE was himself a distinguished mechanical engineer.

Secondly, and thanks to the efforts of Richard’s brother and OBM Stephen Wildman (1960-69), a fund also has been created to be used to benefit the School Archive. This is a most fitting tribute to Richard who was the dedicated guardian of BMS history for many years. The first project, which will begin this year, is to digitise all back copies of The Eagle. This will enable people to search for items and photographs easily and will increase efficiency as the Archivist will be able to respond to enquiries quickly and accurately. It shows the school’s commitment to preserving its history while at the same time making it more accessible than ever before. Students will, for the first time, be able to search archive material with ease and, it is hoped, the archive collection will become a valuable resource for all. There is then enough money left to support more work in the future which we will identify as the need arises.

Gerald Gilbert (1939-46)

died in 2015 and his obituary appears in this issue (page 38). His wife, Pamela, wrote to us to explain that she and Gerald had always intended to leave a legacy to BMS but that a change in her circumstances meant that this was no longer appropriate. She mentioned that Gerald was proud to attend BMS as a ‘scholarship boy’ in the 1940s and she has therefore made a generous donation to the Scholarship and Bursary Fund. She said:

“I hope that our donation can help current and future students experience the wonderful education and future opportunities that studying at Bedford Modern School gave Gerald.”

We can only enrich the lives of our students as extensively as we do through the generosity and kindness of people like them.

Club President donates choir books

For many years, OBM Club President, Robin Wills (1960-69) has made an annual donation to support music making at BMS. Some of that fund was used this year to purchase 70 copies of Carols for Choirs 5 which were used at The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Paul’s Church in Bedford on 09 December. Containing fifty Christmas Carols, arranged and edited by Bob Chilcott and David Blackwell, they are a tremendous asset to the choir library and will be used for many years to come.