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Kadir, the gentle giant of a man
Journalist, historian and former UK ambassador to the US, Peter Jay paid tribute to a good friend and colleague at The Oxford Union Society memorial to Lakshman Kadirgamar held on September 17.

November 28, 1958, was a momentous day in my life. After a celibate life in English boarding schools, the Royal Navy and a men's college at Oxford I first met - at the age of 21- an attractive woman of my own generation. I was transfixed. Overnight I became a 50-a-day smoker; and, though I married the girl, it took me 35 years to break the habit.

Also on that day, I see from papers still in my possession, Lakshman Kadirgamar of Balliol College was elected President of the Oxford Union - and I was an unsuccessful candidate to serve as Secretary. The Union was a nursery slope for future political leaders, as both my contemporaries Lalith Athulathmudali and Lakshman went on to demonstrate in their own country of Sri Lanka, only to meet shocking deaths at the hands of terrorists.

Lakshman's election to the President's chair was an auspicious moment for me. For, it was he who gave me the break that every aspiring Union tyro needs, an invitation to speak "on the paper". So it was that in February of 1959 I found myself proposing the motion that "This House is alarmed by recent events in France" (those events being the arrival in power of General Charles de Gaulle and the adoption of the constitution of the Fifth French Republic). I was supported by the former French Prime Minister, Pierre Mendes France. Lakshman was in the chair, and Lalith was a teller, for the Noes.

Lakshman's term as President was a distinguished one; and the whole house grew to love his mellow tones, his gentle dignity and his friendly warmth. He had both authority and credibility in exceptional measures and I grew to think that I should be extraordinarily fortunate if ever again in my life I met so truly nice a man.

I lost touch with him for many years after university, but was delighted to be re-connected, first when former Presidents assembled to celebrate the Union's 175th anniversary and then, at least in correspondence, when the Union gathered for the unveiling of his portrait, which now hangs in honour where he once strode the undergraduate stage in Oxford. He was still the same gentle giant of a man, soft in speech and sharp in thought, with laughter on his lips and warmth in his heart.

I was shocked beyond what my words can describe to hear the appalling news of his assassination. It takes from us the best of men and the kind of man who holds out such hope as the world may have that six billion people can live together on this planet without mutual destruction. He deserves to be remembered for his example, for his decency and for his humanity, all of which were of a conspicuous and rare order. Lakshman, we loved you, we salute you and we shall miss you.

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