Andrew Reeves passes away

Many Liberal Democrats are in mourning this morning after the sudden death of a long-time colleague and friend, Andrew Reeves. He died of a heart attack last night.

Andrew had a long career in the party, including working for Vince Cable in Twickenham and Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey & Wood Green and stewarding at party conferences, before becoming the party’s Deputy Director for Scotland. Andrew was always one of the happiest and kindest people on the campaigns I worked with him on, and never let the occasional inevitable moments of stress or tension sour personal friendships. He had also in recent years become a keen runner for charity.

Three disparate memories stick in my mind about Andrew. One was the middle of a local election campaign when, due to a farcical breakdown in communications, he was inside a locked building, out of touch, and I had to get some urgent information to him. The solution? Remotely logging in to one of the printers in the building and printing out a letter to him. It caught him a bit unawares when a printer sprung to life, churning out a piece of paper starting ‘Dear Andrew…’

The second was Andrew’s improbable ability to keep his shirts perfectly ironed all through the day. No matter how many tips I asked him to pass on, my shirts have never got even close to his levels of sartorial elegance.

The third was the pleasure of attending his civic partnership just a few months ago, and the chance to meet for the first time his long-term partner Roger. (See Andrew’s lovely post here.)

Andrew was always very good at keeping work and private lives separate, so much so that several of us going were joking in advance whether or not Roger really existed…

It was lovely seeing Roger and Andrew together for the first – and tragically last – time in a beautiful setting on the Firth of Forth.

Andrew will be much missed for many reasons by the large number of people he helped, he entertained, he encouraged, he supported and he loved.

My thoughts are with Roger and Andrew’s relatives.