Gerv

Gerv (Gervase Markham III) was a University friend of mine, and we both lived in North London for a while after we graduated. I can’t say that Gerv was one of my closest friends. And I haven’t been in touch with him properly for years.

He knew he was dying of the cancer, which had affected him for many years, and about which he had written very openly online, and now he has gone to glory.

I find myself unreasonably sad.

Others will have paid tribute to him much better than I can. (See also) My partial memories may well be mistaken, but I would like to try to say something, however grossly inadequate.

I understand Gerv did something quite important to do with the interweb, for which we should all be grateful. He was highly respected in the world of Hacking, which he said quite straightforwardly that he did for Christ.

Gerv was very clever. And funny. And highly principled. Hugely generous. Kind. Honest. He could be very direct and tenacious. He had a whole-heartedness and a single-mindedness about him. A passion and integrity. I will think of him as one of life’s great characters. I feel grateful and enriched that I knew him a little, and would have liked to have known him better.

The way in which he responded to his cancer has inspired many. He was certainly looking with confidence for a better country, a heavenly one, which God has prepared for him and for all who trust his promises. The text which springs to mind when I think of Gerv is Hebrews 11:38 – “the world was not worthy of them.”

Pray for his wife Ruth and their three sons.