Adam Kellett-Long - a greatly missed friend

Adam and Mary were our closest friends. Bob crossed paths fleetingly with Adam in the 60s and 70s, usually as one was arriving and the other was leaving a posting, but a shared passion for opera, cricket and horse racing fostered and maintained their friendship across long distances and through many decades.

Jane first met Adam and Mary, and their lovely daughters Amanda and Liza, in the mid-80s when we got engaged to be married.

Adam was the natural choice as Bob’s best man, a responsibility he discharged admirably, a book of “Best Man’s Speeches” poking ever so casually out of his jacket pocket. We have shared so much hilarity, and some sad moments together too, since then. On the day before he died, Adam was still calling us to check on the Test score and discuss the day’s racing fixtures with Bob. News of his death came as a shock. The Hart family will miss Adam’s warmth and humour enormously. ■