Ed Jones (“Eddie”) and I grew up literally around the corner from each other in Crosby and ran along parallel paths at school from the age of 5 at Forefield Lane through our time at MTS leaving in 1983.  We shared many experiences through school and outside and it was amazing to see the old photos on display at Ed’s 50th birthday do at Twickenham last year including one of he and I as Laurel and Hardy at a VSU concert (guess who was whom – we were not VSU members but were persuaded to take part as penance for some schoolboy misdemeanour).   Ed was the scorer for the MTS first XI and mastered the Bill Frindall method which gave a pretty good pointer to his eye for detail and numbers that would serve him well in his career in IT.  Being part of the school Cricket team meant lots of long away games, great times spent together, lots of laughs and a pretty negative impact on our A-level results (I have never understood why exams are in the Cricket season!).  Ed took all this in his stride and went on to have a stellar career at Logica/CGI where I know he was held in extremely high regard.  I have very few regrets in life but one is that Ed and I lost touch for a number of years only to reconnect fairly recently when in catching up he told me of his illness.  I have been amazed by the positivity and total focus that Ed and his wonderful family have shown in battling through, the incredible work done to raise not just money but the profile of brain tumours as an under focused area of medicine.  This is a horribly cruel disease that no-one could have fought harder than Ed.  When we met up again he asked me if I was surprised how far he had gone in his career in running the public sector business at CGI.  I was not surprised at all having seen his determination at close hand in taking on many challenges and all with a unique sense of humour.  A truly great lad that will be sadly missed.

Laural and Hardy

From Ian Kerr 1977-83

I met Ed “Eddie” Jones on my first day at school and we became friends throughout our schooldays, lost touch for a while after school and reconnected, to my great pleasure, later in life – in Ed’s case, sadly, towards the end of his life. Whilst at school we had many happy times around the cricket pitch. I say “around”, as neither of us was particularly gifted in the cricket playing department, but at least Ed was helpful, by acting as scorer, compiling impressively detailed and accurate statistics about each game. I was 12^th man, which mainly involved watching the game.

Ed and I also enjoyed hitting golf balls in my back garden. On one occasion, he hit the sweetest 7 iron, which flew down the garden 150 yards and landed on the greenhouse roof, miraculously without breaking anything. It must have hit the frame. It was probably the best 7 iron Ed ever hit, but the one he enjoyed the least. As we walked those 150 yards, all the colour drained from his face and he was very relieved to that no damage was done.

The nicest thing Ed told me when we reconnected was that his successful career in IT had been inspired by attending talks by my father at the Merchants Computer Club in the early 1980s. My father is still passionate about electrical engineering and computers and was absolutely delighted to discover that this passion had inspired a successful career.

Although Ed was taken from us too soon, it was a privilege and pleasure to know him and to be one of his friends.

From Jon Bond 1977-83

The pictures below were provided by Edwards family.