I didn’t manage to write anything about the death of Tim Garden before going away on holiday but I didn’t want to let it pass without adding my own tribute.

Tim was a great person to work with - always friendly, very supportive, and very encouraging to a young enthusiast, as well as (it goes without saying) a wise head with good advice. When I was Vice Chair and then Chair of the Lib Dem European Group he was enormously helpful as a member of its committee, from taking on running LDEG’s website (which he continued to do even when he was a frontbench spokesperson in the Lords), to telling me that if ever I wanted an article from him for the LDEG Newsletter, he would be very happy to oblige (an offer I frequently took up), to being personally very supportive and encouraging. He once agreed to speak at an LDEG fringe meeting and was the only one of the panel (and almost the only one of the audience) to turn up for it on time, despite the fact that as he said cheerily, this was his 7 o’clock fringe meeting, and he had already done a 6 o’clock one and had to leave early to go to his 8 o’clock one!

Looking over some of the comments made by others I have been struck by how many others too have said similar things about how supportive he was.

He also sat on the FPC for a couple of years where he again marked himself out among parliamentarians there for being a good attender - as well as again of course making his relatively rare contributions very well. I can remember one time in particular when he (unusually) got very cross and made this quite clear to the Shadow Cabinet member presenting, summing up well the mood of the rest of the meeting.

We were all sorry when he didn’t re-stand for the FPC a couple of years ago but he flattered us by telling us he was standing for the FE instead and he thought “they needed him more”!

I will really miss Tim. His habit of turning up for meetings on time meant that if you did too you could often get a couple of minutes extremely genial gossip, always with a breezy smile, before the meeting got under way.

My thoughts are with Sue and his family.