Goodbye Gordon

Many visitors to this stable over the past few years will have bumped into our neighbours, Gordon and Heather Lowes. They generally park their car in our car park at the bottom of the yard and we'd see one or both of them most days, invariably greeting us cheerfully, notwithstanding the fact that Gordon has had to battle various ailments over the past few years which must have been hard for him to smile at times. It is, therefore, with great sadness that I pass on the news that Gordon died last week, nearing the end of their annual winter holiday in Spain. Heather came home yesterday and today she came round to give us the news. Naturally, our sympathies are very much with her, and with their two daughters Mel and Bobbie, and sons-in-law Wally Hood and Conrad Allen.

Gordon and Heather moved into 53 Exeter Road on his retirement several years ago. He had previously been a studman, having for many years been the manager of Cedar Tree Stud at Six Mile Bottom, which was at the time owned by Mr Fustok and whence sprang several very good horses, mostly trained by Bill O'Gorman and including, I believe, the brilliant two-year-old Brondesbury, whom I remember seeing winning the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot on an afternoon bunking off from school when I should have been studying for my A-levels. More recently Gordon's health has not been good, but he was a very stoic man who bore what was clearly, at times, considerable pain with great fortitude. Even so, his sudden death, from a heart attack, has come out of the blue. Death is always sad, but it's particularly sad when it is the death of a fine man, and even more so when it leaves such a decent family bereaved.