Kenneth Simpson, Head of English, George Heriot's School

“I have some very happy memories of working with Chris, particularly in connection with Chalmers Neill’s legendary musicals. In my first year at Heriot's, 2003, we worked together in On Your Toes, where Chris played Sergei Alexandrovich, the Director of the Russian Ballet: the reviewer, my colleague Alan Chalmers, commented that 'his accent was superbly authentic, but it was the totality of the performance which so impressed - his deep voice, his gait and in particular the facial expressions.' The following year, we were part of a stunning Anything Goes, in which Chris played a gruff but wealthy American banker called Elisha J Whitney, who sang a song about rowing - and he managed to do all of that in a very different accent from the previous year's! I think Chris and I always worked together very productively, and I hope I helped bring out some of that ‘enjoyment in performance’ which the family remembers so warmly. I think he always liked an audience – he was one of those people who moved almost naturally into the limelight, and I suspect that may have been as true on the rugby pitch as it was on stage!”