Dear Wendy, Ed and Henry,

So many lovely stories about Simon’s kindness, humour and patience – there are few activities more excruciatingly dull than watching live dressage. As luck would have it, i drew dressage in the Olympic lottery and Simon very kindly answered the call as it took place in Greenwich Park. It was not exactly fall-about-laughing stuff, but Simon was so polite, so charming and managed a few jokes that the day passed remarkably quickly – time always passed quickly with him – from one topic to another, until we had to go for a pint of his local Meantime. It was a lovely day, but because of Simon’s wonderful company. Skiing in Innsbruck with Polish Re was not really his scene as not a skier; he loved it all as you see; it was he who made the impromptu speech at my 70th – of course it was a laugh, but Simon was not just a good talker but a great listener too and what a memory he had!  

All those qualities wrapped up in one person – we will miss you, Simon. Thank you.