I’ve been umming and arring about posting this as many people come here for a dose of the usual nonsense, but I thought it important to do so.

Yesterday I was shocked to hear the very sad news that James Rawling, or ‘Gambit’ as many of us knew him, had died. It was totally unexpected as he was only 27. He was one of the first Wibloggers on Wibsite.com, the community blog-site which I run, starting his blog in late 2002. He was also a contributor to the Ship of Fools bulletin boards which was how I first met him.

Others have been posting about their sense of shock at this news on this Ship of Fools thread and some of the Wibloggers have been expressing their thoughts too, for instance here on Jack the Lass’s blog. On James’ blog itself prayers have been posted.

James was known for his dry sense of humour and was the life and soul of the London Ship of Fools meets of which he became the main organiser. The accounts James wrote on his wiblog were always well read and enjoyed by everyone. In fact in February 2003, in the days when we used to publish the viewing ratings for the different Wiblogs James’ ‘Life at Lambeth’ was the most popular blog, beating even the dullest blog in the world. His blog caused some controversy at the time with his then employers at Lambeth Palace, and it is only because of James’ loyalty to his former employers that the story of what happened has never been told and now, sadly, probably never will be.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and those that knew him well.

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