Hugh Thompson
was my oldest friend in New Zealand. We first met way back in the late 1950s when my mother, Margaret Laidlaw, met Hugh’s mum and dad at the NZ Society (as the NZ Branch was then) Summer School at Day’s Bay in Wellington in 1956. Hugh’s mother, Flora Thomson was the founder and teacher at the Cambridge SCD club. Mum, my brother and I would occasionally go down to Leamington to stay for part of the school holidays. Hugh’s dad, Dr. Jack Thomson, had his medical practice beside the house. Hugh and I stayed in touch with each other over all the years until his sudden death at the end of 2019. Hugh and his wife Carol had come up to visit his sister Jean in Otorohanga and had had dinner at our place just the Wednesday before! He was as large as life with no signs of departing! His death came as a great sad shock to us all, especially his wife Carol.