Duckers

It's the memorial dinner for my dear late friend tonight. A few military men and old Cambridge friends are making speeches and I'm going to say a few words. Choosing the appropriate anecdotes is hard: there is such a large selection! His nickname at Cambridge was "Duckers". This was his favourite shoe shop (it's in Oxford). Once when he was punting he'd taken off his Duckers shoes and one of them fell into the Cam. Duckers was distraught. He spotted some young boys on the bank and persuaded one of them that he would be well remunerated if he'd dive into the river and get the shoe. The boy stripped off and dived in but couldn't find it. Duckers then said in a rather dramatic fashion (as was his wont) that there was no point in only having one shoe so he tossed the other one into the river. Two minutes later the boy shouted, "I've found it!"