Christopher was an extremely intelligent, intensely principled, charming, funny and very kind person, deeply beloved by his family and loyal to his many friends. Born in London and schooled in Edinburgh, he was proud to be British and was a passionate supporter of Scotland's place in the Union. He took Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge where he captained his Robinson College rugby team. A superb linguist (he spoke Spanish, Hindi and Mandarin), he also loved history and politics, hillwalking and cinema. After graduation, he travelled widely and worked in India and China, and then operated at a senior level for business risk agencies in London. In 2014, he returned to Scotland to support the campaign for the Union as day-to-day manager of the symbolic and beautiful 'Hands Across the Border' cairn project at Gretna.

More recently, he enjoyed working at the Scottish Parliament where he made friends across all parties. A talented rugby player, Christopher believed deeply in the transformative power of rugby and he saw an opportunity to foster cross-party and inter-parliamentary relations by establishing the Scottish Parliament Rugby Football Club.  Despite initial difficulties, he persevered - through an enormous amount of hard work and charm - to create, build and captain the successful Club, organising great games against the UK, Welsh, Irish and French parliaments, linking with charity The School of Hard Knocks, and becoming the Club's Founding President. Christopher had just completed the first year of a Law degree at the University of Edinburgh when he died.

He is deeply loved, much mourned, always in our thoughts, and we will meet again.

Please send your favourite stories, memories and photographs to us, his family, at:

tributes@christopherland.uk