Despite being quite a few years older than me, Brian and I quickly became good friends on my joining the Sun Alliance insurance group in 1978. We lunched together most days, played footy & squash together and laughed together - I loved his sense of humour. He'd service or fix my car (my Dad's too), happily sharing his knowledge along the way. I grew close to Brian's family and was really chuffed when he and Carol asked me to be one of Kevin's godparents.

I was only at the Sun Alliance for 5 years but we maintained our friendship, even after I left the area 35 years ago. Yes it was almost invariably me who would call Brian (!) after many months but our laughter and reminiscing resumed as though we'd seen each other the previous week and occasionally we'd meet up, especially around Christmas.

Brian helped shape that raw 18-year old more than he ever knew.  I valued his friendship highly and will really miss our chats. RIP Brian, you were a lovely, kind man.

Dave Jones