"he was a great bon viveur,spoke good French and was a fan of Bordeaux wine"

He certainly was. Barry and Linda came to visit us (near Bordeaux) a few years ago and I asked if there was anything special he wanted to do. He said "no, nothing special, except perhaps to visit he Médoc".

So, off we went, me driving, him navigating. He kept saying things like "oh, look, there's Chateau Latour and it's just across the road from Chateau Wossname and it's a Pemier Grand Cru and that's only a Deuxième and I thing we've still got half a dozen bottles of the '65 in the cellar" etc. etc. I asked if he wanted to visit a Chateau and he said "oh no, I just wanted to see where they all were". He'd never been before.

Of all my old friends from Sheffield, my wife appreciated Barry the most. Not only because he made a point of speaking to her in French but because of the sort of person he was. She says he was 'un très gentil garçon' and I think she's right.