General Knowledge

Regular general knowledge competitions were started at Boston Grammar School by Richard Anderson in the mid-1970s. It started with Inter-House General Knowledge in which teams of four from each year and each house competed. Richard Anderson saw this as being one of the few ways for non-sporting students to compete, another possibly being chess. The house competition led to a competition for individuals, which was named BGS Mastermind, after the BBC's Mastermind programme. At that time, the television programme was hosted by Magnus Magnusson, which resulted in Richard Anderson sometimes receiving the nickname (though not in general use) "Anders Anderson".

Soon teams of students were competing in television quiz shows and national competitions, representing the school. After leaving school, a number of boys who had been involved in general knowledge activities in school went on to compete in further television quiz shows and competitions.

While a core of supporters would turn up every week to take part in or be audience at competitions, it was not until several years later that general knowledge gained full club status in the school, becoming General Knowledge Club or GK Club.

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  A team from Parry in an early Inter-House General Knowledge Competition: David McGladdery, Carl Upsall, Mark Snell, Jeremy Squires

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  Richard "Anders" Anderson and Andrew Martin: question-master and assistant