Sir David worked unbelievably hard. He started work in the small hours of the morning, despite travelling almost daily from Framlingham to London. Long before anyone else had arrived in the office, there would be pages of his inimitable handwriting, which one of the team described as like a ‘spider crawling through an inkwell’, waiting on our desks for attention. His determination to get to work could take him to the most extraordinary lengths. On one occasion, having recently undergone a hip operation, Sir David was staying at his twin brother Mike’s flat in London. That day there was a seminar taking place on the Commonwealth and Conflict Resolution, something Sir David had brought together, and felt strongly about. Mike left very early that day, and Sir David found himself firmly locked in, with the only possible exit out of a smallish kitchen window, down a drain pipe and across two roof ridges. He did not phone the office and give his apologies, but straight out of the window he went, shinned down the pipe, clambered over the rooftops, and tapped on a rather surprised person’s window to explain his predicament. In his words : ‘Luck was with me all the way and I made the street. I knew then it was bound to be a great day and it was’. There really was no stopping him.

As I know Anne will agree, there would never have been such a thing as retirement for Sir David, he was a man who lived for a challenge, and for helping others. He would be concerned if a friend of a friend of anyone he cared about was unhappy, or out of work, or lonely, and would go out of his way to help them. Even when doing battle with the most difficult of projects, he would never fail to calmly put his pen down and sit and listen to anyone who needed to talk. He was almost too selfless in his determination to help and to achieve perfection, but it is fair to say that he would never have been truly happy unless pursuing a good cause.

After leaving the Royal Commonwealth Society, Sir David spent time at home in Framlingham. He worked on a huge variety of projects at the same time, but when he popped back in to the RCS offices at times, it was clear how much he was loving being at Little Lodge with Anne and the animals. He was relaxed, happy and enjoying life – full of stories about the antics of a particular cat or sheep, talking with pride of Anne’s latest project, or enthused by plans for some of his other interests; the regimental museum, Norfolk County Cricket Club, the Bury St Edmunds Cathedral education project, to name just a few. However, the word ‘retirement’ was not one that existed in his vocabulary, and he set to finding himself another major challenge.

The one he chose was of course the most difficult he could find. A group of organisations had come together with the hope of creating a major national project promoting the importance of vocational skills in the UK. Sir David believed totally in this as a valuable cause, and although even beforehand he knew the mix of characters involved could prove difficult, he took on the role with determination. It proved as tough as he had expected, negotiations were hard, and politics frustrated his need to get on and establish something meaningful. He worked on, regardless, and fought the necessary battles in the formative stages to create an excellent plan, and bring on board the organisations it needed to succeed. Without his sheer grit, I believe the project would not have made it off the ground. As it happened, the Manpower National Skills Festival 2000 not only launched successfully, but has just made its incredibly successful maiden flight. A matter of days ago, a huge event took place at Birmingham NEC, buzzing with activity, putting young people and their skills centre stage and getting its message out in the national media. Sir David’s idealism about what could be done was realised, and is set to take place again in the future.

It was during his time at the skills festival, however, that Sir David found out that his time with us all was to be sadly limited. Initially, he struggled on through the pain, but as time passed, and he felt confident all was in place, he finally, thankfully, took the decision to step back. He wanted to focus more of his time on his family, friends, home and other projects.

One such project was to provide him with the most incredible inspiration and reward, during the last months of his life. During his time with the Royal Commonwealth Society, to a much greater degree afterwards, and right to his very last days, Sir David was involved with the charity International Alert. He had discovered a new vocation for a retired soldier, in the world of peacebuilding and security sector reform. This was a role in which the contacts he had built in military life, even directly as a result of war, could be used to resolve conflict, and Sir David felt great pride in being active in such valuable work. They paid Sir David a compliment which meant an immense amount to him, in continuing to encourage him to take on the role of Chairman, even when fully aware of the extent of his illness. He carried on doing his very best for them, even when in pain – he believed so strongly in what they do. Prior to this, as Vice Chair of the Board, Sir David brought them his formidable organisational expertise, and his ability to see the big picture, while keeping a close eye on the details. International Alert is an NGO dedicated to the non violent transformation of conflict. He, as a soldier, helped them to see how the military and security spheres had an integral role to play in this process and how they and the charity could play useful and complementary roles. He went on a field trip with them to Burundi and made a brilliant contribution to the discussions about the reforms necessary in the army there, if they were to play a role as a neutral, ethically balanced force that was seen by the people as a protector rather than a threat. As a General he outranked all the Burundian staff and they all appreciated his willingness to share his experiences in Ireland and elsewhere. They loved the way he isolated different problems, broke them down into constituent parts and then stimulated different discussions about them.

More than this though, he got to know everyone in the charity, spoke positively to everyone, got some sense of what each was doing and encouraged them in it. He made time to go and listen, sharing people’s concerns about ways of bringing peace to war torn societies and was unfailingly generous with his attention. He made all the staff feel special and important. He was an inspiration and a source of much delight in the organisation. Faces lit up whenever he appeared.

The Director of International Alert, Kevin Clements, will never forget the way in which the sun fell on David’s face on his very last visit to the Commonwealth Secretary General. In his words, ‘it was a dark day and it was as though the one ray of sunlight gave his face a quite beatific radiance. All at the meeting stopped to comment on how radiant he seemed, and he gave us all one of those wonderful smiles even though he was in great pain…. That was the measure of the man. He isolated the problem, he lived each minute as though it were his last, and he shared his gifts generously with all of us’.

Finally I turn to the area of Sir David’s life which he loved most dearly of all - his family. Starting with family with him from just a short time after his own birth, his identical twin brother Mike, always referred to as ‘brother Mike’. Sir David loved to relate tales of their mischief together as boys, and as grown ups you still see that same mischief when they were together, plotting their next endeavour, often to do with their shared love of the game of cricket

Now I turn to Anne, Edward, Georgie, Laura and their family of animals. He was so intensely proud of all of them that he loved nothing better than to talk about them all, in such a caring way that he endeared each of them to anyone he was working with long before we had the chance to meet them. His family and home were his refuge, his strength – they provided constancy where his work sometimes did not. The reason I, as someone who has but worked with him, feel I can say this, is because of a lovely characteristic he had of referring to each of them by name in meetings at work. In a meeting where there was friction, or awkwardness, Sir David would suddenly relate lovely, thoughtful anecdotes about Anne, Edward, Georgie and Laura and their animals. Any stress would flow away from him as he spoke about a particular event or animal encounter, and you could guarantee that tension would dissipate in the room. His tales always had a relevant point, but at the same time you could see the genuine pleasure on his face as he thought about home. He wanted everyone to have the opportunity to meet his family, because they were his best friends, the people he thought most highly of. He was so proud of each of his three children, in different ways, and held in high regard their individuality and the paths they have found for themselves. It was obvious to his team at work, that any function we undertook where his family could attend was one Sir David truly enjoyed – it was clear to anyone who saw him on such occasions that having them all together around him were his happiest moments.

I think, however, the times when his happiness was positively bubbling over, were when he was at home in Framlingham with all of them. Sir David never expected he and Anne would be able to own such a beautiful place as Little Lodge, and I know that together they would walk around their land always in awe of their good fortune. I know also from Anne, that Sir David was particularly delighted at the fact that his home overlooked a cricket pitch!

He would travel all the way home from London of an evening, even if he arrived late, to ensure he had time with Anne, and with Home. Sir David drew great joy from Anne’s work with the animals and their land – he loved so much to be there with her and their extended family of dogs, cats, peacocks, chickens, sheep, cattle, guinea fowl and many others. I know he hoped there might be a place for animals here today, so I would like to mention just two of the many - particular loves of his - both of whom he will now be happily reunited with - his loyal labrador Bella and great friend Winnie, his Vietnamese pot bellied pig.

In conclusion, there are two additional things I wanted to include, which I have not found a place to talk about so far.

The first is something about Sir David none of us could have missed - I just have to mention for memory’s sake, his favourite, striking, red and yellow MCC braces, which he loved so much.

The second, is an extract from an email sent by a friend of his to me, which says so much about him : ‘He was and still is one of those remarkable people that didn't let cynicism marr his belief in what was good and right about the world. Almost like when you were a kid and you were taught that all policemen were good people and that if you hung out for your life's true love it would come along as if by magic. He managed to hang on to that sort of idealism and made it work in the real world.’

Sir David Thorne touched the lives of more people than anyone I can imagine. He was the most inspiring person you could ever know - all of us here today have lived richer lives because we had the honour of knowing him. We will go on winning for you Sir David, your memory will only grow stronger.