Tuesday 16 June 2015

Peter Bond - RIP

Peter Bond (BGS 1946-50)

We have heard that BGS old boy and OBA member, Peter Bond passed away recently. We hope to be able to publish a proper obituary in due course.

Monday 8 June 2015

Paul Nguyen Van Tam - Obituary

Paul Nguyen Van-Tam (BGS Staff 1970-80, later a supply teacher at the school 1990s-2000s)


Paul Nguyen Van-Tam, former teacher of mathematics and physics at Boston Grammar School, died on 21 May 2015.

Paul gained his BSc at the University of Nottingham. His father, Nguyễn Văn Tâm was Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam in 1952/3. His brother, Nguyễn Văn Hinh, who died in 2004, was appointed the Vietnamese National Army Chief of Staff by Emperor Bảo Đại.

He taught at Kitwood Boys' School, Boston, and Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford before arriving at BGS. He took charge of the Naval section of the CCF (the school's Combined Cadet Force) and, on the death of Norman Haworth, took overall charge of the CCF.

In 1979 he left BGS to take up the post of Senior Mathematics Master at the City School, Lincoln, though he later returned to BGS as a supply teacher in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Paul leaves two sons and a daughter. His sons both attended BGS: Jonathan Stafford Nguyen Van-Tam and Dominic Nguyen Van-Tam. Jonathan is Professor of Health Protection at the University of Nottingham and Dominic is Manager Pharmacovigilance Data Reporting & Analysis at GSK.

While Paul was a firm master, tending towards strictness, he seems to have been well respected by many of his students, and is reported to have made mathematics "click" for several who were otherwise uninspired by the subject.