Journal

Flew to Copenhagen from Gatwick with Elaine and Louise on Wednesday, 30 January, to speak at a series of events. The really big day was February 1st, originally because it was Elaine’s birthday and because I was to do three major speeches in that one day. The news that my father, Tim, had died that morning was kept from me until after I had done the last speech.

The first event was organised by the Confederation of Danish Industry, the second by the High Level Advisory Board (with the audience including some 30 CEOs and the Crown Princess) and the third, out at UN City, a much larger event for the UN Global Compact. Though I say it myself, all three went very well indeed.

After discussion with the family back in Little Rissington, we decided to stay on in Copenhagen to complete my work visits on Monday. That night we had dinner with Louise and her son Noah, at Krogs, an extraordinary fish restaurant. And toasted Tim’s memory alongside Elaine’s birthday.

While we were visiting the glorious Design Museum, where we were blown away by many things, including their unbelievable exhibition of chairs, I heard from Chris Sveen, CSO at UBQ Materials, where I’m on the Advisory Board. We were invited to meet him and Glenn Frommer, who I think I last saw in Hong Kong, to dinner at Veve – a truly ravishing vegetarian restaurant. During the course – or perhaps I should say many courses – of the evening Glenn and I discovered a shared interest in SF bands, including The Grateful Dead.

Our father Tim died yesterday morning, aged 98. He was surrounded by loved ones, including our mother, Pat (see below).

I, sadly, was in Copenhagen, doing three speeches in one day. For decades I have travelled with the sense that one or both of my parents would die while I was travelling.

Here is a picture of the ensign flying at half-mast at the Capel-le-Ferne Battle of Britain memorial site over a replica of Geoffrey Page’s Hurricane.

More on this before too long, but a big tree has fallen in our forest. [And the BBC Radio 4 item picking up on this quote is some 13 minutes into this link.]

Here is one of the bigger stories from his extraordinary life.

And here is the love of his life:

ADDENDUM

Since this post, obituaries have appeared in many places, including The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Daily Express. I was happy that the Express used this quote from me:

Speaking from Denmark his son John last night told the Daily Express: “My father grew up in a different world. An only child, sent away to school when he was six, he jumped at joining the RAF shortly before the war. He would later stress that, while he was one of The Few, they in turn were supported by The Many. The ground crew, radar plotters, the merchantmen and tanker crews running the gauntlet of the U-boat wolf-packs. And, critically, the ordinary Britons who endured the Blitz.

“In recent years, he was an extraordinary ambassador for his generation – indeed there has been an amazing outpouring of gratitude over the internet since his death was announced and the RAF ensign went to half-mast at the Battle of Britain memorial.”

Across to Essen, via Düsseldorf Airport, yesterday. Then a very cold day’s filming today for Covestro’s new media campaign. Delighted to be able to spend some time with Gianna Heintges of Covestro – and to meet Baratunde Thurston, who interviewed me on camera in various spots around the old Zollverein coal mine, and Gator Halpern of Coral Vita, who is working to regenerate coral reefs, profitably. Enjoyed myself immensely.

My long-gone friend and colleague Max Nicholson would be shocked rigid to see what is happening with the Sixth Great Extinction, but at the same I suspect he would relish some of the news. Learned today that my long-standing colleague at SustainAbility, Kavita Prakash-Mani, now also a member of the Volans Board, has been appointed WWF’s new Global Conservation Director. My heart lifts.

Also in recent news on the conservation front, I have been asked to renew my term on the WWF UK Council of Ambassadors, and to join the Board of Conservation X Labs – delighted to accept in both cases.

Wildlife projected me into environmentalism and sustainability. Now it seems, conservation is becoming a real Thing in my life. Pay-back time?

One reason I have been quiet for a while has been the holidays – and the fact that I am working on my new book, my twentieth if all goes well. But another reason has been a form of purdah required by the negotiations, over quite some time, through which ERM acquired SustainAbility.

Have been receiving lovely messages since the announcement was made at 16.00 GMT today, from current team members at SustainAbility and alumni, and from others around the world.

As the press release note:

Founded in 1987, SA has helped define and evolve the sustainable development agenda and the role of business within it. Throughout its history, it has worked with business and stakeholders to enable a more just and sustainable economy.

I still had five years to run at SustainAbility when I began this blog back in 2003. But it has now been 32 years since Julia Hailes and I, with help from Tom Burke, founded the organisation – which spent its first 2.5 years in our family home in Barnes, before fledging and moving off to the People’s Hall, north of Notting Hill.

Some people say time flies by, but all that seems centuries ago. In fact it was in the last century, before the Internet and while the Berlin Wall was widely seen to be eternal.

Too soon to know how all of this will turn out, but I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my long-standing friend and colleague Geoff Lye, to other Board members and to Executive Directors Rob Cameron and Mark Lee, and to the literally hundreds of people who have worked with SustainAbility over the decades. I am proud to still call many of them friends – and am seriously proud of the work we have done together since 1987.