Music is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Peter. Growing up in the 50s and 60s in Barking and sharing a bedroom, I have happy memories of Peter playing guitar and singing, and the excitement of the days when his friends would come round and play music with him. He used to go to places like Barking Folk Club (where he heard a young Paul Simon playing to an audience of about a hundred people) and the Marquee club in London. I loved hearing him talk about the bands he had seen and the music they played and this certainly influenced my taste in music from an early age.

Memories of Peter first buying and learning to play the trumpet were not quite so happy. Although he mainly practised upstairs, the sound could be heard throughout the house (and probably next door). Thankfully it didn’t take him too long to master the instrument and begin to play actual tunes.

I remember one occasion when we put Peter’s trumpet to good use – we were getting frequent nuisance phone calls on the house phone and, after about a week of picking up the phone to be greeted with complete silence, we decided enough was enough. The next time we had a silent call Peter blew his trumpet down the phone as loudly as he could. We never had any more of those calls.

My fondest memory is singing along with Peter at the traditional family parties on Boxing Day. We mostly sang the same songs every year (Puff the magic dragon was a particular favourite) but we got away with it as we had a captive audience.

Aside from music Peter was a wizard at mathematics. If ever I had a problem with maths homework he would patiently explain where I was going wrong. I also remember the time we decided to demolish the old air raid shelter in the back garden. The demolition didn’t take long but we were left with a big pile of rubble. Peter did some calculations and worked out the size of trench we would need to dig to get rid of it, and we spent the next couple of days digging the trench and filling it in. Unfortunately Peter hurt his back in the process and had to cancel a cycling holiday he was due to go on the following week.

Peter was always good at making and repairing things. I remember one year he built a crystal radio set for my birthday present, I had many hours of enjoyment listening to that radio. Some years later he developed an interest in repairing old clockwork clocks, he must have spent hours taking them apart and getting them working. He was a very clever and talented brother and we will miss him.