Tom McLeish Service of Remembrance

At 1.45pm, (ie before the official start to the service) there will be a performance of Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano. This is a piece that Tom learnt as a teenager and one that he regularly played at home.

Dress code: celebratory, colourful (not black, please) and comfortable! Depending on the outdoor temperature, the Minster can feel a bit cold after a while so you may want to layer up! If it helps, imagine that you are at a celebratory event with Tom and choose something that you think he would like to see you wearing. He would be wearing his multi-coloured waistcoat for sure!

The service will be livestreamed on Youtube on the York Minster official site. You may want to go to the site now and have an explore and see how it looks. The order of service will be available to download on this site when Tom's service appears. This service (like all their services) will be available for 30 days to view.

It is really impossible to do justice to a life that was lived so full as Tom's was in approximately 90 minutes. Although some of Tom's many achievements will be mentioned, the main focus of the service will very much be Tom as a person and our relation to him.

We hope that it is a time that we can all remember him with thanksgiving and celebrate his life. I am sure that there will be extensive celebrations of Tom's achievements - especially as an academic in many academic communities over coming months and years but the service just isn't the right place for that and time is woefully inadequate to cover it.

There will be refreshments offered at The Hospitium in York Museum Gardens after the service and you are warmly invited to join the family there for a while before heading home. This is a great opportunity for you to share your piece of 'Tom’s life patchwork' with others here. The Hospitium is just a five minute walk from the Minster in the general direction of the train station.

A number of people have asked if they can make a donation in memory of Tom. The answer is Yes, please! There are three charities that we will be supporting in Tom's memory (details below will also be in the order of service booklets too). Thank you.

• Gastroenterology Services at York Hospital
• Help Musicians UK (Musicians' Benevolent Fund)
• Macmillan Cancer Support