Mary Peter and I go back so far that it is hard for me to remember a time when we were not friends. It is too soon to comprehend that I cannot pick the phone up and speak to him if I want too. or that same random message will appear on my Facebook page. I suppose these were the two elements which made our friendship special to me - we had know one another almost all our lives and he was always dependably there. The name Peter is, of course, derived from the Greek for 'rock' and if anyone lived up to their name Peter did. He was dependable, loyal and unwavering in his sense of duty. These are the qualities which made him such a good officer, but also made him such an admirable man. I am sure you have heard all our silly stories of escapades as schoolboys and students so often you are pretty sick to death of them, but they were such happy times for us that we could not forget them if we tried. According to Peter, I was always getting him into scrapes - but I am not sure that was entirely true! Latterly we had seen less of one another but the sheer joy I felt when he turned up to my birthday party as a surprise a few years back, just reminded me how much I had missed him. His strength of character stayed with him to the end, I really cannot imagine anyone else reacting so calmly to being told his newly diagnosed cancer was not survivable. His stoicism and good humour till the end was typical and so humbling to see. I shall miss him terribly. John Ballentyne