Alan Davidson

I'm sure Steve Reed won't mind me copying this from his website - he puts it much better than I could. I worked with Alan for just 6 months at the Labour Party, but was always running into him at Conference and other events. He was a really nice guy.

21 November 2007
My friend, Alan Davidson, was taken ill and died suddenly yesterday morning. I was shocked to hear the news this afternoon. Alan was just 43 years old and leaves behind his lovely wife Anna, a BBC radio journalist.

Alan was a long-serving member of the Labour Party in Streatham. He used to work full-time for the Labour Party before moving into public affairs first for an agency and more recently for Reed Employment. He was also a very active trade unionist. Alan was Labour to the core, believing that our party was the only way to secure the fairer society that he wanted to see. He was one of those people you could rely on to come and help whenever we were out on the streets campaigning in elections or to make life better for ordinary people.

I last saw Alan on Wednesday last week. He had some new ideas on how to develop a new generation of council candidates that represent the whole of our community. I’d seen him the Sunday before as well at the Remembrance Day service at Streatham War Memorial. It was a beautiful sunny morning and Alan, as was his way, had come wearing an eye-catching hat. He seemed in the best of health and spirits on both occasions. It’s shocking to think he’s been taken from us so unexpectedly.

Those of us who knew and loved Alan are finding it difficult to take in this shocking news. He seemed too young, too healthy, too full of ideas and life to be taken from us. He was warm, generous and thoughtful. He had plans for the future for himself and his wife that included hopes for a family of his own. All that’s been taken from him, and the rest of us are left wondering how best to mark and celebrate this lovely man’s life. It’s hard for all of us, but most of all our thoughts are with Alan’s wife Anna, and his parents and close family members. It’s always hard to say goodbye, but hardest of all when you weren’t expecting you’d have to.