I remember John as a staunch, hard-working, level-headed and loyal friend and colleague. We worked together at Miller’s for some thirty years, in the latter years as partners of the firm. One of my most vivid memories of John comes from our very early years in the firm, shortly after the introduction of the “syndicate system”, whereby our work was organized around the Club Members, rather than by the type of claim they produced. We were both in Syndicate 3 – the pilot syndicate – and every year we would celebrate our launch, which took place on 9 March 1964 (or was it a bit later than that?) with a party held in the filing room, for which our filing assistant, Emily Murphy, would bake us a much-appreciated birthday cake! One particular piece of work from those days on which John and I collaborated was what became known as The Inter-Club New York Produce Exchange Agreement or “ICA”. This is a sort of knock-for-knock agreement between Owners and Charterers for disposing of claims for cargo loss and damage on vessels chartered under that form of charterparty. Little did either or us realise at that time that this modest document would later be widely adopted by the shipping industry as a standard, the interpretation of which has been the subject of many arbitration proceedings and, indeed, court cases. Every reference to that agreement reminds me of John, and makes me smile as I remember the pleasure - and the frustration – that we shared in putting the drafts together. Then, of course, was John’s great love of sport. During the time he was running the Club’s Correspondent’s office in Sydney, I remember flying into Sydney with him, arriving at about 6am on a day in November 1974. By 11am, we were in the Sydney Cricket Ground, watching the MCC beat New South Wales by six wickets. That was my first visit to Australia – it could not have got off to a better start! And I also remember John in another context, his spell in Miller’s New York office in the late eighties. I have such good memories of visiting you all in your flat in Manhattan. Thank you again for your welcome and hospitality.
