2020 was such a bad year in many ways, but for the team at Newtons the lowest point was the death of Alex Thompson. Alex was such a great guy, immensely popular with colleagues and clients. He was friendly, helpful and excellent at his job as a litigation solicitor. Alex was very ambitious and would without doubt have been promoted to Director within our business, something that we had discussed and which he was keen to achieve. He had an entrepreneurial spirit and I’m sad that we will not be enjoying the many years of successfully working together (and the friendship) that I’m sure we would have had.

Alex was such a great guy, immensely popular with colleagues and clients. He was friendly, helpful and excellent at his job as a litigation solicitor.

Alex was also a good laugh around the office, happy to be the subject of a joke, usually about his “cutting edge” fashion sense, including tags on trainers and socks with sliders. He would attend the “girls” bingo nights and engage in banter about hair products. You could set your watch by the time that he made his coffee (11 and 3 – double espresso – extra strength) and you would always know what day it was by whatever Alex had in his sandwiches!

Alex passed away in July 2020, a short two months after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He was 37 years old and leaves behind his wonderful family who were everything to him, his wife Sarah and two young boys Jude and Cole, who will always have our support whenever they need it.

It is typical of Alex that he apologised for being ill and unable to work when we were battling during the pandemic. He left a big hole. If he could speak to us now I know he would say “Don’t be daft – stop making a fuss”.

Alex’s wife Sarah set up a Just Giving Page to raise money for charity in Alex’s memory and a link to that page can be found here.

We are in the process of buying some agricultural land on which we intend to plant a forest that we will dedicate to Alex’s memory – part of our plan to become a carbon-neutral business through offsetting.

Alex’s legacy will always live on here at Newtons.

Christopher Newton, Managing Director

Newtons Alex Thompson and students from St Aidans school Harrogate.
Alex speaking to Stray FM and young aspiring lawyers about their future careers

If you would like to leave your comments with your memory of Alex please do so below. 

Comments

Please let us have your memories and thoughts of Alex below

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  • John Graeme says:

    Obviously the news filtered through about Alex this week

    Incredibly sad to say the least

    I wanted to drop you a quick note to say that he was a lovely young man who represented your business in such a positive way and he will be missed by all your customers!

    It’s a very strange year and I can only imagine the impact his passing has had on the staff

    We will remember him fondly and wish you all the best through these difficult times

    – John Graeme

  • Jennifer Kirkhope says:

    Chris

    I’ve been so saddened by Alex’s passing and I hope that by sharing my memories of him it will help his boys in the future to know what a truly special person he was and how well thought of he was by all his colleagues and clients. For the commercial property team Alex was our ‘go to’ guy for any contentious property issues. I can’t tell you how many times a day one of us would say “let’s ask Alex” and how many times over the past few weeks I’ve thought ‘I wish I could run that past Alex’. He always found the time to help us and I really valued and trusted his opinion – I know that our clients did too.

    On a personal level, one of my lasting memories of Alex will be his morning cheery wave and flash of the lights when he passed me walking my boys to school in Harewood. He would often pass us on his way to work as we were walking to school or standing at the traffic lights waiting for the lights to change and without fail he would give us a wave. My boys started to look out for him and used to ask ‘do you think we’ll see Alex today?!’ and when we did they loved giving him a wave and seeing him wave back. It’s a small thing but he didn’t have to do it and many a person would have just driven past but, not Alex and I think that says so much about him.

    Best Wishes

    Jenny

    Jennifer Kirkhope
    Senior Solicitor

  • Andrew Cawkwell says:

    I have just today learned of the passing of Alex Thompson who I had the pleasure of working with when I was at Newtons (Oct 17- May 19). I was shocked and saddened to learn of this news.

    He was a really engaging person to be around and excellent at his job. I can only imagine the pain and suffering endured by his family and the big loss suffered by the team at Newtons – in particular colleagues at the Knaresborough head office.