Brian and Judith Holloway
For over forty years I, with others likewise, shared the privilege of partnership in Robinsons Solicitors with Brian; and friendship with Judith, his wife.
Even now we find it impossible to think of Brian, or imagine Robinsons, without also having vividly in mind warm thoughts of Judith: not only his wife but also best friend and undoubted soul mate from their first meeting at (inevitably) Robinsons, he as Articled Clerk; she as secretary.
For both Brian and Judith to have left us and passed away (Brian in May this year; Judith in July) within weeks of each other is as poignant in reflection of their lifelong and perpetuating closeness together as it is unutterably sad for those many of us who valued their friendship; and who respected and loved them.
Their joint personalities, flamboyant yet always utterly genuine, and with great personal presence and dignity, created more than the sum of their two beings.
Certainly, one could never be in doubt as to the presence of one, or the other, usually both, in the near, or perhaps not quite so near, workplace vicinity. Hushed tones and dry tomes were no part of the Robinsons family.
It was Brian’s warm and open personality which in large part influenced my own decision to leave Yorkshire for exile in Derbyshire way back in 1975. Once here, it was impossible to remain an outsider for long: Brian and Judith intuitively saw it as their role to welcome newcomers and to embrace them within their own vibrant social circle.
Behind each of their respective irrepressible and congenial natures lay an equally determined and committed work ethic. Brian was renowned as a Property Lawyer of consummate analytical and drafting ability . No problem (and he recognised many which other lawyers had missed) was ever found without his corresponding and often painstaking identification of a solution of ingenuity but always also of impeccable legal integrity.
These skills endeared him to his clients, many of whom became friends; and also inspired the confidence of his established friends (Brian never forgot a friend) to entrust their legal affairs to or through him. His attributes also extended to great sensitivity when dealing with colleague issues. His would invariably be the unerringly correct and compassionate voice to follow in such decisions.
Judith was a “ can do” woman well before her time. For very many years she was the indispensible administrative fulcrum around which the Firm revolved. Tasks would be ruthlessly hunted out and indefatigably dispatched with formidable energy and withering accuracy.
With all these happy and respectful memories for us, it has been particularly sad that their retirement years should have been marked not by just reward but by illness and a degree of social isolation – so very different from what we had remembered and they must have wished for themselves.
Judith’s unstinting devotion to, and care of, Brian in the months before his death masked, with typical stoicism and courage, her own advancing illness.
It is my, and our, heartfelt hope that manifold expressions of high regard and loving affection for their parents, including this inadequate tribute, and their growing knowledge of the esteem in which their parents were both held, will be of comfort to Emma, Amy, and Anna: their much loved, and loving, daughters who together were, and remain, the unquestionably most valued legacy of Brian and Judith’s life together.