*Christopher BURGE*
I am truly saddened by the untimely passing of my good friend, Chris. Although we didn’t see each other a lot in recent months, whenever we spoke on the phone or met up it was as if we’d seen each other the very previous day. Chris was very well regarded by those that knew him and I know that he will be sadly missed by his former colleagues in the further education, teaching profession. Chris will also be missed by those friends, like myself, that he was aquatinted with from dealing in antiques, fine art and vintage jewellery. I certainly won’t know where to go now for that special anniversary, Christmas or birthday gift for Leanne (my wife). Chris was known in the antiques trade as “nouveau Chris” because he had a reputation for having a very keen eye for fine art, antique furnishings and more especially for anything from the Art Nouveau period . He was also an avid collector of antique books and a brilliant calligrapher. I knew Chris from the antiques trade. We met at a trade fair in the early 1990’s where we were both trying to buy the same Rolex watch. Chris beat me to it. He never sold it but would often threaten to sell it to me over the years. Trouble was, the price increased every time it was mentioned. He was always on the button when it came to current market values. I also had the benefit of him teaching me English language at Hull College when I’d gone there as a mature student to improve my use of written English when I was reading law at Hull university in 2001. I recall Chris proofreading an essay for me, he very gently suggested to me that my grades might potentially improve dramatically if I had a better grasp of the English language. So I enrolled on the course that he taught at the time. I still can’t work out If I was particularly gifted or whether Chris had helped me along a bit but I happily achieved the highest grade in the class of mature students that year. I’m bound to say that we became even better friends thereafter
Karl Turner
31/05/2025
