Dr Justin Emery
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Justin Amery (UWCA ‘83) who died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 56.
Following studies at UWC Atlantic and at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School (now part of Imperial College School of Medicine), Justin worked as a senior GP partner with a long parallel career as a children’s palliative care doctor in the UK and Africa. He wrote 12 medical books.
Justin met his wife Karen at UWC Atlantic in 1983 and they have been together since. While at the college they were in the same house, Post House. They married in 1988 and have five children, two of whom are also UWC graduates. Over the years, Justin and Karen kept very close friendships with AC friends.
Justin and his UWC Atlantic dorm-mate, Webster Nonde (UWCA ‘83), over the years enjoyed a remarkable friendship, from their young years at AC up to this time when they could be referred to as senior citizens. In Webster’s words, “If ever I saw a man living out the UWC ideals of international understanding, then Justin was the man”.
Justin sought to understand and embrace people from diverse backgrounds. He took people for who they were, always looking out for the inner beauty in the individuals he interacted with.
On 23rd July 1988 Justin made Webster best man at his wedding with Karen in London and on 14th December 1991 Webster repaid the honour of having Justin as his best man at his wedding with Elizabeth in the mining town of Mufulira in Zambia. Webster, godfather to Justin's youngest child, enjoyed many family come-togethers during Christmas. Webster recalls that he was so humbled when three years ago Justin came with his family to Ndola, Zambia, to attend the wedding of Webster’s first daughter, Grace. Justin was also envious when 2 years ago Webster phoned him and told him that he had become a grandfather. He yearned for the day when he too was going to hold a grandchild in his tender arms.
Justin died unexpectedly by taking his own life. This was an out of the blue unexpected act as he was a man that lived his life to the full and embraced his work, family and friendships completely.
Justin lived his life to the full. He enjoyed going to Highbury and later on to the Emirates to watch Arsenal FC, the team he'd supported since he was a child. With close friends he also engaged in very fulfilling spiritual conversations. In many ways, Justin was a very spiritual man and sought to understand the real essence of our existence here below. Justin is gone and gone too soon but he has left behind an amazing heritage of true and meaningful friendships.
Justin is survived by wife Karen (née Bateman), his children, Michael, Mair, Rhiannon, Florence and Katende, his parents and his siblings, Paul (UWCA ‘81), Julian and Louise.
He will be remembered as a passionate innovator and an inspirational leader who put kindness and compassion at the centre of everything he did.
A classmate, Tim Knatchbull (UWCA ‘83), said that laughter followed Justin everywhere. “In our AC induction week I arrived in camp wet and exhausted after a long day orienteering,” recalled Tim. “I found a sleeping bag in a tent with a large number of as yet unknown first-years. Shivering I lay in the darkness. Then a voice started a Monty Python sketch. It was Justin. Soon the tent was alive with laughter and I forgot the cold. It was the first time I had encountered Justin and the infectious warmth he spread in the world.”
Another classmate, Andrew Manion (UWCA ‘83), reflected: “Whoever said youth is wasted on the young certainly didn’t have Justin in mind. Memories of our college days are a veritable kaleidoscope of laughs and misadventure. For Justin, fun was mandatory and rules were optional. The editors must have had Justin in mind when they stamped “Top Secret” on our Yearbook. As an Aussie far from home I was welcomed into the Amery household and fondly recall wonderfully boisterous meals shared with his loving family. He was also a great travelling companion. Away from college, with AC friends we careered from adventures in occupied East Germany to the Australian Outback in an eclectic assortment of vehicles, collecting stories along the way. Not a moment was wasted. We miss you mate.”
In the words of another of Justin’s co-years, Philip Griffiths (UWCA ‘83), “Justin was compassionate; although we were not consciously religious young men, it was obvious to us all that someday Justin would do God’s work. Justin was curious - about other people and how he might help them, and he knew how to listen. And Justin was cocky. But Justin’s was the most endearing, enthusiastic, energetic, disarming and self-aware cockiness. With his cockiness Justin would light up a room - not in the sense of a glamourous persona – Atlantic College was as far from glamorous as you can get, and Justin was at the lower end of the glamour scale, even there – but he would light it up with possibility and promise. The possibility that we could be the architects of a better future, the possibility of finding ways that we could better ourselves and help others, but also the possibility of great silliness and mischief, and always the promise of great laughter and joy.”
Compassionate, curious and cocky - this is how many will always think of Justin.