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Obituary
Jeremy Candfield – a true gentleman who will be greatly missed
The Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) former Director General Jeremy Candfield has passed away following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. RIA’s Policy Director Peter Loosley has written this tribute about the man both admired and respected by everyone with whom he came into contact.
It is with the greatest sadness we report that RIA’s former Director General, Jeremy Candfield, passed away on Sunday 1 November. As many of you will know, Jeremy had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for several years.
Jeremy joined RIA as Director General in 1998 and relinquished the role in 2016 only when the onset of Parkinson’s was making it impossible for him to continue as he would have dearly wished.
It is impossible to overstate the changes he made to RIA during his 18-year tenure. He transformed it from what had been regarded by many as ‘a gentleman’s club’ with relatively few member companies to the go-to trade association with a membership of over 200. It had also become the established voice of the railway supply chain and was viewed as a vital and integral piece of the post-privatisation rail jigsaw.
Make no mistake, this was a sea-change in how RIA and the supply chain were perceived in the industry. Jeremy brought RIA to the top table and created the platform essential for RIA to continue to grow and progress. He achieved this transformation through, I believe, three key ingredients.
First, a lot of hard work. He hardly ever stopped – not only the usual letters, e-mails, meetings and phone calls but also countless evening functions and overseas trade missions. I should stress here that this would have been impossible without the dedicated constant support and understanding of his wife, Uta.
Second, he identified the key people and organisations with which to engage. And he did so in a firm but collaborative way – rightly gaining their confidence by being straight and open with them and seldom, if ever, resorting to public criticism, which he did not view as being terribly productive.
In establishing these strong relationships, he ensured the necessary two-way dialogue that raised supply chain communication with government and key clients to a new and mutually beneficial level.
Third, his scrupulous honesty, integrity and consistency both within and beyond RIA (there was no duplicitous side to Jeremy). These are qualities that some might view old-fashioned but which perhaps demand greater currency
than they enjoy in these very strange and difficult times.
Colleagues with whom I have been in touch, both ex-RIA and members, have been unanimous in describing Jeremy as an absolute gentleman who will be much missed. Indeed, he was. It was Jeremy who brought me to RIA and he was a constant source of sage advice, particularly in the early days when I was finding my feet. But not only that, he was a good and loyal friend, and I remember with affection the occasions we put the world to rights over the odd tincture (or two). Others will recall similar experiences. I owe him a lot, as do the collective RIA membership and the railway industry generally.
Our deepest condolences go to his widow, Uta, their children, Sophie and Christopher, and their respective families. I hope it will be of some comfort to them to know how much Jeremy was both admired and respected by everyone with whom he came into contact.
It is just such a terrible shame that, having devoted so much of his substance to his work, he was not granted a longer and more comfortable retirement with his family.
