Funeral

On the horizon, Tynemouth Priory, sacked by the Danes in the year 800, rebuilt as a castle by the Normans in 1095. It slowly deteriorated over the centuries - for a long time being merely the location of a navigation light. Improbably, it was still used by the military in WWII, and they only left it 10 years after the war ended. Three kings were buried there, the third one being Malcolm III of Scotland - the character Malcolm in Shakespeare's Macbeth


In the words I spoke at our friend's funeral I said that he exercised 'the sort of leadership that is without ambition or hubris on one side and without jealousy or resentment on the other'. Qualities a king would die for