Martin and myself were apprentice printers together at Malden Manor Press from 1978 to 1983. I have 100's of stories of Martin, some I can tell, a lot of them I could not. We were so close till we were about 25. We occasionally met up in the years following. Was hard to tie him down. 

He is the reason I met my first girlfriend. He is the reason I met my wife.

He would pick me up at 6.45am on a Saturday morning for 4 hours overtime and after we would play pool in the Skinners arms in Mitcham Junction. We would also play darts together. We would shoot our cameras together. We played football together for Sutton Town.

When I picked him up from home for a night out, he would sneak out wearing Dad's shoes and Pete's jumper unless they caught him. I think I took him to Marks and Spencers once and made him buy some clothes. He mostly wore Football training kit from one club or another. For some reason he called me Kalvalenos or Kalve for short.

We played masses of tricks on each other as apprentices. Never did it amount to anything worse than him putting spray powder in my coffee and me tipping boiling coffee over him!

His first car which I think he paid £50 for caught fire outside the Windsor Castle in Carshalton. I think some locals from the pub put the fire out. He also bought a stunning Orange Capri with a sun roof that wouldn't open.

I wish I could share all the stories, it would take days to recount. I so loved the boy.

I wish you peace and love Martin and hope we can meet up some day on the next journey. Kalve