I went to the Memorial Service of Desmond Plummer, Lord Plummer of St Marylebone. It was held at St Margret’s Church, Westminster which unfailingly does Memorial Services very well.

Desmond was my first ever boss; fresh out of Durham University thirty-five years ago I was his political assistant. He had just completed six years as leader of the Greater London Council. A man who got things done in a big way, under his tenure the GLC initiated sales of council houses at discounted rates and invested heavily in the Capital’s transport, in the process demonstrating what could be achieved by local government if given the backing of central government. He was also thoroughly kind to me in a thousand separate ways, given my inexperience.

At the service one of the readings was taken from the beautiful General Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales:

There was a Knight, a most distinguished man,
Who from the day on which he first began,
To ride abroad had followed chivalry,
Truth, honour, generousness and courtesy …
And though so much distinguished, he was wise,
And in his bearing modest as a maid,
He never yet a boorish thing had said
In all his life to any, come what might:
He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight.

It stuck me that the verse could have been written specifically about Desmond and perhaps appropriately he was, along with his various other titles, a Knight of the Order of St John.