In The Spotlight: Paul Nash

This month, Paul Nash (1973-80) is in the spotlight:  

Tell us about what you do now. Has your time at the School influenced your life today?

I left BMS after the Sixth Form with half a dozen O Levels and two A levels and went into the employ of Barclays Bank on Bedford High Street. On my very first day a young lady opened the door for me and showed me into the manager’s office where I was briefed on all things banking. Seven years later I married that young lady and we have now been married for 37 years. My wife, Shona, left Barclays after 41 years service and now has her own training and development consultancy.

Branch banking wasn’t really for me, and I left Barclays Bank to join its subsidiary Mercantile Credit after six years. Over the course of the following 32 years I worked in the finance and leasing industry for a variety of institutions including two Dutch banks, Deutsche Bank and the mighty GE. Although covering countries in Europe I have never lived abroad and have been in our current home in Bromham near Bedford for 29 years.

With the finance world crash in 2008 I found myself unemployed. Rather than this being a bad thing it turned out to be a stepping stone onto my next work venture as I bought a franchise with Western Provident Association (WPA), a private medical insurer. This was my first self-employed role and I loved it. I still work in the private medical insurance market along with writing life insurance policies for business owners. I work under the banner of Sterling & Law Group plc, a medium sized wealth management company but continue to be self-employed.

Tell us about your time at BMS. Do you have any special memories you would like to share?

I joined BMS aged 11 after passing the entrance examination and I was thus a fee-paying student. I spent one year at the old school in the town centre, now the site of The Harpur Centre, and a further six years on Manton Lane. My years at school were 1973-1980. I was desperate to attend BMS to both follow in my father’s footsteps (he was at BMS from 1944 – 1949 approximately) and to join the older boys that I grew up with on Falcon Avenue in Brickhill, namely Messrs Dugdale, Mason, Wallbank, Field and Tipton. The boys’ tales of great sport and the best school dinners were all the motivation I needed to pass the entrance examination.

My main focus at school was sport. I played cricket and rugby for my year groups up until Sixth Form at which time I reached the dizzy heights of captaining the third XV. In that season the third XV beat the second XV and the second XV beat the first XV so in conker terms we were the best team in the school.

For my school activity on a Friday afternoon I took part in The Duke of Edinburgh award programme. I completed the bronze level and took part in a gold level expedition to Iceland. This was a group of approximately 10 boys and was led by Geoff Nicholson, a geography teacher. We spent two weeks under canvas in various parts of Iceland, the highlight being a hike up a glacier just 100Km from the Arctic Circle.

Who was someone from your time at BMS who had an impact on you and why?

Sport was both competitive and fun under the guidance of three great masters, Messrs Cullen, Chadwick and Chinneck all of whom had, and still have, my greatest respect. It was a sad day when GH Cullen died but he was given a fantastic send-off in the marquee at Bedford Blues. I was honoured to be asked to deliver a eulogy for him.

Chads, who I still address as Sir when I meet him, was also my House Master (North house back in the day) and seeing that I was totally useless at cross country running he made me House Captain of Cross Country. From coming near enough last in the previous year I made 57th, not necessarily a sporting highlight but certainly a sign of how Chads could get the best out of a boy.

What do you do like to do in your spare time?

I have two grown-up daughters aged 33 and 30, the elder lives with her husband in Newbury and the younger with her fiancée in Streatham. The older one is a talented singer and has just recorded three songs at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis and Johnny Cash made records. You can listen to my daughter’s songs on YouTube under “Nash and the Mac”, her husband being the “Mac” part of the duet. My younger daughter is Head of Business Development for the Mauritius branch of The Institute of Accountants for England and Wales. She is a keen runner and completed the Amsterdam Marathon last year.

I am still very keen on all sports. I’m an average golfer with a handicap of 14, a keen course angler and season ticket holder at Bedford Blues RUFC. I also love live music and recently visited Las Vegas to watch The Killers at Caesar’s Palace. To make the most of the four days we had in Vegas my wife and I also watched two Elvis and one Frank Sinatra tributes.

My time at BMS was very enjoyable and gave me the perfect foundation to become a husband, father and businessman. I am very proud of my school and play an active part in getting my peers together for reunions, especially at The London Lunch. The school is an integral part of the town of Bedford and we should all respect what it does for its pupils and the community.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

If you want to be good at something you need to train and practice. I got by on what natural ability I had as a sportsperson but, in hindsight, I wish I’d tried harder at rugby and cricket and maybe represented the first XV and first XI. Having written that I really enjoyed my sport, the overriding advice would be to enjoy the opportunities you are given.

And (I know you shouldn’t start a sentence with the word “and” but sometimes it works) don’t smoke, especially half way round the cross country course! You will come last and it’s very bad for your health!

I also would advise myself to have a diverse group of friends. Today I believe my friends are diverse but back in my teens my views were less broad.

Are there any other thoughts you would like to share with the OBM and BMS community?

Stay connected with those friends that you make/made at BMS. This will prove advantageous from both social and economic perspectives. As a student at BMS you are rubbing shoulders with a talented group of individuals, don’t waste the opportunity to learn from them, be it intellectually, socially or culturally.