I was very fortunate indeed to meet Adrian in 2000 when under a bit of grilling in his office at Western House in Aylesbury.

I had always been a railway fan .. in the 1960s I grew up very near to the Great Western's 'Birmingham Direct Line' at Knowle & Dorridge (and yes I insist on its full name!) and Solihull and saw its decline after the West Coast Main Line electrification was completed in 1967 .. services reduced, stations shorn of canopies protecting passengers from the rain (and many only built 30 or so years earlier when Lapworth to Tyseley was quadrupled), beautiful GWR/WR lower quadrant signals gone, tracks singled - and in essence the people of my part of Warwickshire told you now have to drive to Hampton-in-Arden or Coventry if you want to head to London on the best trains, and if you want to travel north you always have to change at Birmingham.

However I had pursued a non-railway career as a social worker in the Oxford hospitals and then in child protection - a valuable world of work but not one that ever could be described as fun, and by this time I was 42! But I had been chair of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group and a Guard on the Severn Valley Railway, made railway contacts, and one of these took me to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) which was joining up with Chiltern to bid for the-then Wessex Franchise. I was welcomed by SBB but told I had to be approved by Adrian. It was a tough interview - how could a social worker come and help? But I held my own in the discussion, and the trump-card came when Adrian asked me if there was anything I had ever written about railways that he could see. From my briefcase I handed him a 4 or 5 page article I had written in RAIL Magazine about the Cotswold Line. Later that day I had a call from Adrian - do join us, but join Chiltern not SBB. You will get your pension, your travel, you will be part of Chiltern.

And from there my life changed. I was working on my Great Western line, in a company that was restoring it not only to meet the modern needs of the populations of Birmingham, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, but radically expanding it - Chiltern would support and grow the economy and communities and do so in better environmental ways .. and do every form of innovation that could be thought about and then tried out.

Adrian was an expert at choosing his people and all of us both learned from him, reflected his values and principles, and I think the 'Chiltern Railway Company Limited' was exactly that .. a great company of people who made dramatic change happen, worked out how to pay for it, delivered it, and then operated it day-in day-out with our passengers always our very first consideration. What other reason would there be to run it? But without Adrian I think the bigger world of the industry may have thought the 'Total Route Modernisation' completed in 1992 was 'it'. Done. Sorted. Without Adrian I firmly believe Risborough-Aynho would still be single (as the LSWR route to Exeter), there would be a limited Birmingham service ever couple of hours, no Warwick Parkway, no Aylesbury Vale Parkway, no Birmingham Moor Street in today's wonderful form, no 168 fleet, and certainly no Marylebone-Oxford. Much less would have happened.

Of Adrian as a railwayman there are many facets. The way we all met him personally in our first week. He knew all our names. He sat in the cab with the drivers. He met everyone. When he appointed me as General Manager (North) in 2007 he came to Moor Street on one early day, and talked about 'your stations', 'your passengers' and 'your staff' - but then firmly reminded me that he reserved the right to come and talk to any of and every member of staff at any time. You would get a call at 7am on a Saturday morning .. "Ian - I am at your station at Bicester North. The Customer Information Screen is showing erroneous details about the next train to Birmingham. Please sort it." You did.

Adrian led from the ground not from afar. And of passengers I remember one day he and I were visiting Gerrards Cross - we left the train, Adrian a step in front of me, and an elderly lady with a big case was trying to get onto the footbridge. Straightaway he went up to her, offered to help, and assisted her across. That was at the heart of his set of principles.

Of Adrian as a man he was often hard to work for, more than hard to work for. If you thought you knew your subject he knew at the very least just as well and usually much better. Unreasonable? Well yes sometimes it felt like that. But his focus was on doing great things and ordinary things properly. And he was deeply loyal. We were loyal to him. Him to us. When I suffered 2 major challenges in my life - my daughter in hospital and the end of my marriage - Adrian was there. Understanding. Supportive. Practical. Kind.

After Chiltern I went to work at SLC Rail with Ian Walters, and I am still there. On a sunny day in, I think, the summer of 2013 or 2014, we met Adrian for lunch, appropriately at the Great Western Arms at Aynho, and asked him to become our Chairman. He accepted and supported us actively and with all his wisdom and judgment as we carried on applying the Shooter/Chiltern principles of doing great railway projects that help those 3 things I mentioned earlier - Economy, Communities, Environment. And he carried on despite his MND until just days before he and Barbara went to Switzerland, resigning only as he looked to face that last road trip.

I imagine we could all write our own books about Adrian. From yesterday's amazing memorial day at Fawley (for which thank you to Barbara, Lady McAlpine. the Fawley staff), I feel Barbara fiercely expressing her own and all our forms of love for and gratitude to him, as well as our understanding of him as real person of both effect and contradiction. I could write so much more. But just one more thing. I had the privilege of visiting Adrian and Barbara at home at the end of November. He was clearly suffering more but he was the same man he ever was. He showed me his award just received from the Japanese Embassy for the many many years of GB-Japan railway exchanges, and he was clearly pleased with that. He asked me about my daughter, about my own world and we talked a little about SLC Rail and carrying on 'getting things done' despite the cold industry climate we are in. And then he just dropped this question upon me .. 'Ian .. just why and how are you a socialist?' This was always a topic of wry amusement between us. I explained how I came to that position early in my life - as ever he listened carefully - and at the end I said something like .. 'have I explained it well enough?' He quietly smiled and confirmed that I had. But in my explanation I had firmly referenced Adrian himself - for from my different political perspective I had witnessed and learned what I think was his position - 'entrepreneurial public service'. A profit had to be made. Finances has to be sound as well as innovative. But the purpose was serving the public. 

Of his death I think 3 words .. self-respecting and selfless. As Barbara said .. of great courage.

And of greatness Steve Murphy was right at yesterday's memorial day at Fawley to call Adrian a Great Victorian - perhaps as well we can remember him as a Great Elizabethan bridging the history of our still fantastic railways, and undeniably a great man.

Of the attached photograph this was just as Adrian had seen off a train at Solihull to Marylebone on the first day we were Station Facility Owner after we had bought it from London Midland. I think in 2009. Infectious enthusiasm!