In Memoriam - Greg England

Letter from Terry England

Eulogy to Greg England – Corey Bousen:

When I first met Greg England less than a year ago during last year’s Rugby Sevens celebrations he was wearing a blue T-shirt with a Superman logo on the front. Within the first few minutes of his talking I was quickly impressed with his calm, assured aura. Already knowing that he was a pilot, I could tell that if there was anyone you wanted sitting in the front of an airplane in an emergency situation it was this cool character before me. As the evening continued I quickly gained an appreciation of Greg’s fun-loving nature. Somewhere along the line he managed to acquire a red, rectangular piece of cloth which he tied around his neck to make a cape. Among the mad Rugby Sevens throngs I could still picture Greg in Lan Kwai Fong; he was Superman and he was indestructible. Over the following weeks and months I quickly formed a strong bond with Greg and he became my best friend in Hong Kong.

We spent much time together, talking about life, its many challenges but, most of all, its many opportunities and its countless joys. I grew to know and understand Greg as I know and understand very few people; I grew to know and understand him as a brother. He had become an essential part of my Hong Kong life and my Hong Kong family. While his many friends here today knew Greg to be a generous and trusting man with an open heart who always accepted people into his life and home without judgement or discrimination, he was quick to lend friends money when asked and to offer his house to those who needed a place to stay ‘cause they had nowhere else to go.

I wasn’t surprised to hear from Greg’s dad the other night, that, at home growing up in Canada, Greg was known in his home town for often protecting the weak. When bullies threatened bodily harm to a physically weak child, unable to defend themselves, it was always Greg that was quick to step in to protect them, physically if need be. As he became an adult, Greg matured to learn that he didn’t need to resort to his superior physical stature to protect those unable to protect themselves. Instead of growing his muscles, Greg actively grew his mind and quickly became the calm individual that I first met and he carried with him an impressive, sharp intellect. He was a person who taught himself to speak Cantonese fluently because he loved Hong Kong and he loved its people. He was a fiercely proud Canadian but he called Hong Kong his home and he intended to stay here and continue to build his life and his successful career.

This plan was thrown into chaos one tragic day last August when I received a short e-mail from Greg while I was on vacation in Tokyo. "Call me as soon as you get this message," was all it read. I called him at home and asked what was up. He told me that he had been fired from his job. A job where he was only one test flight away from being promoted to First Officer; an impressive feat for a man who was only thirty years of age. I was extremely saddened that I couldn’t be with Greg to help him at greatest time of need. Prior to this, I knew Greg as a strong, independent individual. He looked out for those who couldn’t look out for themselves. He’d been put in a situation beyond his control where he now felt helpless to protect his livelihood and the career which he had tirelessly spent thousands and thousands of hours to build. The weeks that followed I believe were the toughest of Greg’s life. I do know that he soon found comfort and hope amongst many of you here today, his pilot colleagues and particularly the people at the pilot union. Greg then devoted his energies to the fight for The 49ers to get their jobs back and he worked tirelessly to achieve this end. It was true that Greg sometimes had his down days since the sometimes vicious industrial dispute began, just as I’m sure did his fellow 49ers and their families.

But I do know that in the days following the tragic event of last Monday night there has been a lot of speculation about Greg’s fall to his death and some people speculated that it was an outcome of his own free will. To all of you gathered here today I feel obliged to clear the air and put forward the facts as best as they can be pieced together by his close friends that had contact with Greg in the days and hours prior to his death.

Two weeks ago Greg went to hospital complaining of severe stomach pains and received treatment. I saw Greg the Friday before his death and he spoke of having a stomach ulcer although we understand this might be Greg’s own description of what were severe stomach cramps for which, on that same Friday, Greg had been prescribed various medications for the stomach cramps and stress, etc. Three days later, last Monday morning, he called me and he asked if I had a VCD player on which he wanted to test a video disc that he’d made for the pilots’ union. I asked him how he was going and he said his medication was making him hallucinate. I told him to take care and said to call me that evening if he wanted to come over to test the disc but he said he couldn’t ‘cause he had ice hockey practice on. Gerard, a good friend of both Greg and I, tells me that Greg had called him over on Sunday night to talk about some urgent matter. As I was late, Gerard, also a staunch and giving friend of many of us here today, went over to Greg’s place to discover that all was not well and to find that Greg was behaving abnormally. He was seeing visions of God; he was having a terrible reaction to his medication Gerard was so concerned he spent the rest of the night at Greg’s asleep on the couch. Greg and Gerard also researched his medication on the internet and found that in some cases it can cause hallucinations. Gerard said to Greg that he would help find some alternative natural medication that did not provide the terrible stomach cramps that were plaguing him.

That Monday night Greg, who last year led his team of Cathay Pacific colleagues to win a world ice hockey championship, went to practise at a local ice hockey league. His good friends on the team report that Greg was in high spirits at practice, joking about and having a good time generally. Subsequently he enjoyed a couple of drinks with his team mates in Wan Chai until around 1 AM when he returned home still sort of located in Wan Chai. He spoke to a friend on the phone and organised to go out with him the following evening. His friend says that Greg sounded very tired and his speech was a bit erratic, but also that he didn’t seem to be talking like someone who, only one and a half hours later, would voluntarily throw himself out of his bathroom window. Greg’s beautiful girlfriend Vicki dropped in after work to see Greg at around 2.30 in the morning. She works as a professional singer so doesn’t finish ‘til that time. She found he wasn’t there although his mobile phone which Greg never leaves home without was in his office. What happened before Vicki’s arrival I don’t think will ever really be known although I can only conclude that the alcohol may have further exacerbated Greg’s allergic reaction to the stage where he was again hallucinating and this ended with his tragic fall from his bathroom window.

But even for me to conclude that Greg did not intentionally kill himself, no less reduces the tragedy of his death. He was taking that medication because he was repressing a massive amount of stress in his life. But I know that the only stress he had was his on-going struggle to get his job back with Cathay Pacific.

As I speak there continues legal battles between The 49ers and Cathay Pacific in various jurisdictions around the world. But I distinctly remember Greg once telling me that even if one of these cases saw him receive say a million US dollars in compensation he wouldn’t give a damn. He’d trade in any money if he could just fly again for the airline that he respected and loved and he could stay in his adopted home of Hong Kong which he really believed was the best city in the world and the only place he wanted to be. Greg wasn’t a political guy. He didn’t want to see any harm come to Cathay Pacific. I know some of you here today have intense feelings of anger at Cathay Pacific management. Greg could never even bother disparaging the airline management who put him in this position. All he wanted was his job back. He didn’t want to be caught up in this bitter dispute that harmed Cathay Pacific and profoundly damaged the lives and livelihood of The 49ers and their families.

It is for this reason that on Greg’s behalf that I urge this dispute to end. Cathay Pacific’s management I ask to not let Greg’s tragic death be for nothing. To Swire’s chairman, James Hughes-Hallett, who I’ve had some dealings with in a previous time as chairman of Hong Kong’s shipowners association. I know you to be a good-hearted and extremely intelligent man. Show the world that you understand that this dispute is no longer about dollars. This dispute is about people’s lives and it has gone on for far too long. To the pilots of Cathay Pacific I urge you all to make unwavering your support of the union and The 49ers. To the parties on both sides I remind you that this dispute should be one where those involved are able to rise above the hatred and vitriol and conduct themselves like the highly trained professionals that all of you are.

To both sides, let’s honour Greg’s memory, let’s bring this dispute to an end, let The 49ers return to work.

To conclude, I would like to try and put some perspective on the apparent senselessness of Greg’s death. To do so I want to tell you about the New Year’s Eve just passed. I dropped over to Greg’s place in the evening after work. We thought about going down town but we both agreed that we couldn’t give a damn about the hype that surrounded New Year’s Eve. Both of us struggled to garner any real excitement for the so-called big event. In fact Greg said that it wasn’t any different from any other night. And having had a late night the previous evening, Greg was always a bit of a late night-owl, around 10.30 he said he was going to bed to get some sleep and wait for Vikki to drop by. I subsequently caught up with both of them later that morning but at that stage, not particularly fussed myself, I went home and at quarter to midnight I finished the book that I was reading, "The Fifth Mountain" by Paulo Coelho. I remember a line I found in that book particularly on the issues of God and death. The book talks about why God usually meets with his prophets on mountain tops.

But while re-reading the following words I think of Greg sitting on his own movable mountain top, the cockpit of an Airbus wide-bodied jet. To see photos of Greg in the cockpit is to see him where he was happiest and where he found the peace and contentedness that he carried with him to his day to day life before he lost his job. The following are Paulo’s words:

"From these great heights both our glories and follies lose their importance. Whatever we have conquered and whatever we have lost remains below. From these heights you see just how large and beautiful this world is, and how far are its horizons."

As the book concludes, the central character, Elijah the prophet, is talking to a boy about tragedy and why God allows what humans perceive as tragedy to occur in the first place. The boy says to Elijah, "couldn’t God have chosen a better way of showing us his lessons? There was a time when I thought he was evil." "God is all powerful" replied Elijah. "He can do anything and nothing is forbidden to him. For if anything were forbidden to God there would have to be someone more powerful and this someone more powerful is who we would worship."

Elijah continued to explain that God, because of his infinite powers, has chosen only to do good. If you clearly see and truly understand God’s plan you would see that often good is disguised as evil. But it goes on being good and it is part of the plan that God created for humanity.

Upon finishing this book, at the stroke of midnight, I listened to the first time the Marvin Gaye "What’s Going On?" CD that Greg had loaned me that evening. A remake of that song has been put in the wake of the tragic events of last September 11. But Greg, who was of the most passionate lovers of music on this planet, preferred what he described as the old school version of Marvin Gaye’s. And we’ll listen to this song shortly. It was also this same CD that was in Greg’s CD-player the night that he died so it was probably the last music he ever heard. And so to this question Greg, "What’s going on?" I can’t provide the answers. I guess that in the end you weren’t Superman at all. You lost your powers to fly and then you tragically came crashing to the ground. Greg, I love you as do many of your friends here today. Peace to you my brother. Your memory and your spirit continue to fly with us always in our hearts.

Words of thanks from Greg’s father:

My wife and my son would like to join me in personally thanking the union and the membership for their amazing show of care and concern over the week since Greg’s death. The union was quick to contact us and we were truly overwhelmed at the efforts of all involved. Needless to say, the past seven days have been both painful and tiring, but the stress was alleviated by the generous assistance of many of you. I would like to make a special note of thanks to 49ers Pat Doherty, Cam Blakeney-Williams, and Bruce Schoettler who patiently escorted me around Hong Kong and assisted me in the daunting administration task associated with Greg’s passing.

Greg truly loved life as no other and I believe the memorial address given by Greg’s friend Corey provided a wonderful reflection of his attitude toward life. Those who had the opportunity to know Greg will surely agree.

I am not an emotional man by nature and during the memorial, I sat facing the photographs of Greg who seemed to stare back, reminding me, "Dad, be strong and don’t break down". Throughout the service I was afraid to look behind me and count how many had decided to appear to remember Greg. But I was emotionally overwhelmed when, at the conclusion to the service, I turned around to see the great Cathedral without a single empty seat. The camaraderie shown by his friends and peers that day was something I will never forget.

I would like to join Corey in voicing my wish that my son will not have died in vain. I hope that a resolution for all of the other 49er officers and their families can be born from the grief surrounding Greg’s death. I know Greg would certainly share those thoughts.

Yours sincerely,
Stephen England

Footnote:

Stephen and Terry England are still pursuing the High Court action in Hong Kong to clear Greg's name.

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