James Gordon

“Chris was such a friendly, intelligent and well principled young man. He was a loved and cherished part of our friendship group. We always called him ‘Landy’, so that’s how I’ll refer to him.

I have to start with rugby, a sport that he loved so much. We teased Landy that he dropped the ball too often, but he was a really good player, a hard-tackling and tenacious centre, endlessly energetic and a strong leader who excelled at all aspects of captaining Robinson’s rugby team. He was a humorous and ever-present fixture on team social outings and fostered a strong team spirit off the pitch. His organisation of the Robinson rugby tour to Edinburgh was perhaps his crowning glory! An incredible weekend; a mad blur of rugby, beer and laughter all brought together in Landy’s home city. 

I really admire that he genuinely cared about the positive impact that rugby can have in life. This is evident in all his amazing work to create a cross-parliamentary rugby team more recently, but I first saw this back at university. He was appalled that the Robinson college bar didn’t have a rugby team photo on the wall and he successfully organised one (not an easy feat with 20 plus lazy uni students) and battled with the bar staff for months to get it put up. When I go back for old boys rugby weekends, it’s still there on the wall, hanging proudly. It reminds me of some of my happiest times at university and now it will always make me think of Landy. 

We lived together in Year 2 at Romsey with Ben, Ed and Boz. I’m still not aware of a retailer that was able to create an alarm that was loud enough to wake Landy up, and I also recall him making us a spaghetti bolognese where he achieved the impossible ... the bolognese managed to be both burnt and yet also still frozen at the same time. That aside, he was a really great housemate. The 2nd year always stands out to me as when we had the most fun and he was such an integral part of that, an ever friendly face who was always there to chat to. 

Throughout the madness at Romsey, he knuckled down, worked hard and achieved incredible things academically. He really was such an intelligent person. It's quite a skill to be able to master Chinese and Hindi: I remember him showing me the basic letters of the alphabet, and that was enough for me to give up. He loved pointing out, especially when he was wearing black tie, “Did you know that James Bond also studied Oriental Languages at Cambridge?” 

He was a good dancer, though he used the ‘crab dance’ too often in nightclubs! He was incredibly hairy, but I must admit quite handsome. He loved Scotland, but also loved Great Britain and fought passionately for the Union. He was principled, quirky, funny and, most of all, he was a really great friend. We’ll miss him greatly. 

Rest in peace, my friend Landy.”