Gareth Kingdon's photostream  

The following Memorial websites have been set up for Gareth:

For photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/garethkingdon

Its free to become a member of Flickr.com and when you do, you can join in the GarethKingdon group to arrange socials and exchange stories about Gareth or tell others about socials between Gareth's friends this year:
www.flickr.com/groups/57265512@N00/

For videos:
www.youtube.com/profile?user=GarethKingdon

For Remembrance:
garethkingdon.gonetoosoon.co.uk/


Content will continue to be uploaded over the coming months and we hope years: whenever Gareth's friends meet in the future, please send some photos (or video) to Tory, Wobbly, Dan, Skip, Cath McQ or Steve M so that they can be uploaded.



Gareth was the Best Man.

When his friends and family think of him they think of him laughing (often until he had tears in his eyes!) and they think of how they laughed when they were with him. He was loved by many, as shown by the fact that four of his friends asked him to be the Best Man at their weddings (On one of these occasions he performed the job in both English and Italian).

The depth and breadth of Gareth’s interests are reflected in the smorgasbord of books on his bookshelves: Tin Tin rubs shoulders with Jamie Oliver, “How to tie Knots” is wedged between a trilogy that chronicles the Byzantine Empire and a 1927 volume of Thomas Hardy. He would definitely be the friend to phone if you were stuck on the last question in “Who wants to be a Millionaire”, or if you were struggling to finish the crossword.

His tastes were similarly eclectic when it came to popular culture: being a dedicated Radio Four listener he could reel off the entire Shipping Forecast and dish the latest dirt on the Archers, but could with equal ease reel of the footie match results of the day (especially QPR) or name each of the Atomic Kittens.

Gareth loved foreign travel and had many adventures in Nepal, India, Africa (where many of his relatives live) and was a frequent visitor to Europe, Barbados and the USA.

He was born in Weston-Super-Mare, within sight of Wales, where his mother and father were born, and always considered himself Welsh, especially when there was a rugby match on.

His father remembers that, as a little boy, Gareth said the only woman he wanted to marry was his mother and take her to the shops in a Jaguar. He was to realise at least one of these ambitions.

His family moved from Somerset to Nottingham when he was 7 months old and then to Tunbridge Wells where he attended St Mark’s School. Along with other primary school children he was a familiar figure walking from home to school in his brown uniform. On rainy days he always put his school cap in his pocket in case it shrunk. On music days he carried a little violin which always looked endearing. He managed to convince his teacher that he was seriously involved in practice, although his parents did not share that view.

Gareth moved with his family to Tunbridge Wells as a young boy where he attended St Mark’s School. While at Skinners School he was a conscientious student, keen cross country runner and even found time to start up a radio show while still making it to the Pantiles for a pint to entertain the ladies on a Friday night.

Getting back to his Welsh roots G accepted a place at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth where he read History and International Politics (Joint Honours) and discovered “West Coast” living… He often likened the experience to life in “similar” West Coast havens like Biarritz and San Francisco.

In 1990 he earned his Masters in Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China from the University of London, School of Oriental & Africa Studies, writing his thesis on the development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army regional and strategic stance, 1979 – 1986.

After moving to London Gareth’s first real job was at the Inland Revenue where he, “effortlessly entertained his peers during the less than white hot excitement of the Inland Revenue’s Inspector Training Course.” But as one colleague put it “he had far too much get up and go in him to stay in the civil service, and so he duly got up and went. Both then and now, he left us wanting more.”

Gareth left the Revenue as a Senior Inspector of Taxes and worked at Ernst & Young as a senior manager, including a year stint as a UK tax desk specialist in New York. “Uniquely among the more than one hundred secondees over here”, writes a pal from those days “he is warmly remembered by his US colleagues as one of the best tax practitioners.”

He was a nine year member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

In 2001 he was seconded to Hong Kong and as the long hours and longer commute took its toll he got in touch with a girl whom he had noticed years before when she was across the road from Skinner’s School at the Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar. They had not seen one another for more than 16 years as she had been living in the United States, but after finding out from the website ‘Friends Reunited’ that she had returned to the UK he found an excuse to email her and she could not resist his charms. His trips to Hong Kong came to an end.

In 2001 he started at the Ford Motor Company based in Brentwood, Essex where he immediately took advantage of the Manager Car program and ordered his first Jaguar (part of the Ford family of cars). In his European role he made frequent trips to the company offices in Madrid and Frankfurt where he was greatly respected by his colleagues. According to his boss, “He carried everyone with him. He was marked out as having a great future and the office will be a far less happy and effective place without him.” He was recently recognised for his talents and promoted to Ford of Europe, Tax Director.

In July 2005, Gareth married Tory Douglass at Rotherfield Church in East Sussex. As Gareth had proposed in Rome, they travelled to Italy again for their honeymoon, this time to Positano and Capri where they shared their love of eating (the best Caprese salads) and drinking (mostly Montepulciano D’Ambruzzo because Gareth took pleasure in saying it aloud in a very authentic Italian accent!).

In March last year they left the house in Lewisham that had been shared by so many of his friends during his bachelor days and moved back to Tunbridge Wells to embark on family life as they were expecting their first child. On May 16th 2006 James Angus Kingdon - “Baby Gus” was born at Pembury hospital, with Gareth’s big blue eyes and lovely long lashes! Like his father he has always been full of smiles and able to fill a room with laughter.

In his brief 39 years with us Gareth did not write his historical novel (although his excited scribbled notes for it are copious and promise that it would have been a page-turner). He did not make it onto the Senior Pro Golf Tour, nor did he qualify as a Yacht Master. He didn’t cook Christmas dinner (with perfect Brussel sprouts) on the new Aga, nor travel to Brazil. He will not watch his son Gus grow up, handicraft him a tree house, or teach him how to swing a golf club. He will not dance the funky chicken on his 75th wedding anniversary. These were the dreams he had yet to realise.

But, as one of Gareth’s university friends wrote: He was “a man who loved and was loved; a man who played hard and enjoyed himself in the company of his friends and family; a man who was taken from us far too early when we had so many more things to do together; a man who was always there for us all and a man who could smile that cheeky smile and you knew things would be OK. I have never known anybody who could attract people to him and extract a loyalty from them that was there for everyone to see."

Tragically, Gareth spent his first and only Father’s Day in hospital where he received the news that he had cancer. He faced the following months of intensive chemotherapy bravely (he hated needles), with determination, optimism and always with humour. He was obedient to his doctors and cheerful with his nurses. He finished his course of chemotherapy and was considered cancer-free by his oncologists, however one of the chemotherapy drugs caused severe and irreparable damage to his lungs and after a month in intensive care he lost his battle to breathe.

Gareth is survived by his wife Tory and son Gus, parents, Mary and Barrie, sister, Nicola Jane and brother, Daniel and his cat Emma TT (Tiny Tiger).

He was the best.



Gifts can be made online in Gareth’s memory to the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital www.justgiving.com/sponsorfi, to Mind, the mental health charity www.justgiving.com/forgareth, or to the Royal London Society for the Blind www.justgiving.com/4gareth



Gareth Kingdon was born on October 20, 1967. He died on December 29, 2006, aged 39.