This morning Councillor Lindsay Frost, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care on Croydon Council and campaign manager for Gavin Barwell, the Conservative candidate for Croydon Central, passed away. Here, Gavin Barwell pays tribute to his friend and colleague.
I will remember Lindsay most as a tireless and committed campaigner. Back in December 2007 when Andrew Pelling announced that he didn't wish to stand for re-election, Lindsay and I - along with 100 other people - applied for the vacancy. We both got through to the final four and I narrowly pipped him at the post. Most people in that situation would have said to themselves, "If they don't want me as their candidate, they can find someone else to do all the leg-work" - but not Lindsay. He devoted the last 25 months of his life to trying to get me elected. In all that time, until his recent illness, he only missed one canvass session.
At the moment, many people feel that politicians are only in it for themselves - understandable in the case of MPs given recent events. But there is a whole other side to politics - tens of thousands of people who give their time for free without any prospect of financial reward, stuffing envelopes, delivering leaflets, knocking on doors. They do it because they care about the place they live and our country and they have strong views about how it could be a better place. Lindsay was a titan among such people. I sit here writing this and think of the hundreds of hours he spent trying to get me elected that he could have spent with his family or at work or listening to his beloved Peter Gabriel and I feel both guilty and humbled.
I have so many memories - the car that parked itself, the competition to find poster sites and deliverers, the nicknames for members of the team, above all the way in which every time he sought to make the back-breaking work of pounding the streets fun.
In a few days' time, the council election campaign will get underway and Gordon Brown is expected to finally announce the General Election. No-one in Croydon Conservatives is going to feel like going out campaigning, however, because we have lost one of our best. But we will do it because that is what he would want. The last serious conversation I had with him was on Wednesday night and he was absolutely determined to get well and to be there at the count on 6th May and see us win. For me, this campaign has taken on a new significance.
I will miss Lindsay's support, his advice and most of all his friendship. But my loss is trivial next to that of his wife Kerri and his young children Holly and Dominic, to whom he was absolutely devoted. I am posting this because as they grow up I want them to have a record of what kind of man their Dad was. I invite those of you who knew him to add your own memories.
Rest in peace my dear friend.
