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I suppose that this page is about the fact that you almost never know the last time that you will see someone.
Martin Lynch ----------------------------Martine Bodin Pearson
I was at school with Martin, at Edmonton school, where he was one of my best friends between the ages of 12 and 18. We went different ways and I last saw him in the late 1970's . In January 2001 another old chum rang to say that he had seen a face which looked like Martin on a silent TV. A quick web search found the following story.
Police investigate possible suicide pact
Detectives were today investigating whether a headteacher and his father who were found with their wrists slashed had died in a suicide pact.
The possibility that Martin Lynch, 48, and his 70-year-old father Joseph, had killed themselves was one line of the police investigation, officers said.
Children and staff at the teacher's school, Hobbs Hill Wood Primary in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, were said to be distraught after being told of the deaths.
Mr Lynch, of Poynders Hill, Hemel Hempstead, had been at the school for 16 years and was an extremely popular head, said Nigel Brown, chairman of the governors.
A Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman said the bodies were discovered at 12.33pm on Thursday.
"We cannot say at this time whether the deaths are suspicious. We may have more information later," she said.
Some months later I found:
MUCH-LOVED headteacher at Hobbs Hill Wood School Martin Lynch took his own life in a suicide pact with his father because he felt he could not go on after an unsubstantiated allegation was made against him.
An inquest at St Albans Magistrates' Court heard that Martin and Joseph both drank a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs after an anonymous tip-off to Social Services concerning the smacking of a child.
The overdose - taken at their home in Poynders Hill in Hemel Hempstead - killed Joseph, 76, but Martin, 48, died from wounds he inflicted to his own wrist, chest and neck.
However, the allegation against Martin - who had just received a glowing Ofsted report - was found to have no foundation and there was no question of him losing his job, the court was told.
The mood at Martin's school in Peascroft Road following the grim discovery on January 18 was described at the time as grief-stricken and parents and pupils piled flowers, poems and pictures in his memory.
In the house a blender and two cups were found containing a mixture of phenytoin, phenobarbitone and paracetemol, along with two bottles of whisky, though Joseph's body held no alcohol.
Both men were lying in the same bedroom, where an extra bed had been moved in, and Martin had a number of knives next to him.
Coroner Edward Thomas, giving a verdict that they killed themselves, said: "In my judgement they both knew what they were doing and what the intention was, which was to kill themselves. Joseph did not want to part from his son. The verdict in this case will be that they killed themselves.
"I have learned during this enquiry that Martin Lynch was a very successful headmaster of this school. He discovered that there had been an anonymous allegation, which did not lead to child protection, but he was a man who felt deeply hurt and very angry about it.
"The tragedy was that it was not to be taken any further but he obviously felt very deeply about it and his position was untenable, despite there being other people trying to persuade him otherwise."
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