Gilbert Rex Howe

Imagine the scene, 0200, February 1973 standing on a quayside, Henley, the Thames.
Robert was shaking with the onset of hypothermia, clad in a T-shirt, shorts and trainers. Gilly Howe looked at my sodden state and said, There's no such thing as cold lad, just varying degrees of temperature! Can you make the next five miles?" 
The following year we were standing beside the lake at Hamworthy, Poole at 0'dark hundred when he uttered the same to me, followed by, "Get in!." The lake was covered in ice I was to dive in and swim two hundred yards.
Gilly died this morning.
There are men and there are characters, Gilly was both. A hero to me and many of the men he trained and guided.