On Thursday 20th January at 11:30am a service of thanksgiving and celebration for the life of Tony Douglas, advertising executive and the first person from the private sector to head the government’s Central Office of Information, was held at St Bride’s Church. Download Order of Service (pdf)
We meet today in St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, to celebrate the life and to honour the memory of Tony Douglas, advertising executive, who began his career at Lintas and then moved to DMB and B, and who then became Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information.
We remember Tony as a consummate professional, a born organiser, sociable and gregarious, a man who loved words and who played with them, recognising their power to influence and mould the human mind.
We celebrate and give thanks for his full and rich life, his passion for travel cooking and good food and wine, above all his love for his family, Jackie his wife and partner for 42 years, and his children Amy and Laura.
We remember too his courage and fortitude during his illness, and as we mourn his untimely death, so we commend him to the love and mercy of his heavenly Father, trusting that at the end of his brief day is the eternity of God’s love.
Amen.
Addresses
Dave Martin, friend
Graham Hinton, colleague at DMB & B
Readings
Amy Douglas, Tony’s daughter, read John 14, v.1-6
1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Laura Douglas, Tony’s daughter, read Somewhere by Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
Jackie Douglas, Tony’s wife, read Introduction to Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David
Music
The choir & organist of St Bride’s performed the following anthems and songs:
Pie Jesu from Requiem – Fauré Ave Maria – Bach/Gounod Flower duet from Lakmé – Delibes O sole mio – Di Capua All you need is love – Lennon/McCartney arr. Jones
Hymns:
All people that on earth do dwell
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven
Jerusalem
