It is with a profound sense of sadness and shock that we must announce the sudden death of John Armstrong.
John was Derbyshire’s finest bridge player winning many national and international awards. Most recently John and his partner John Holland performed superbly representing England at the European Championships.
He will be deeply missed by his many friends all over the world with whom he shared such a variety of interests.
John was born in Ashbourne in 1952. Following his education at Parkside Junior School and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar school he went to Christ's College Cambridge where he studied maths. On leaving Cambridge in 1974 he went to work for Royal Insurance (later Royal Sun Alliance) in Liverpool. He worked there until 2003, initially doing actuarial work before moving into IT. For over 20 years John worked primarily on the integration and decommissioning of Life and Pensions systems following merger and acquisition. On his retirement he moved back to his hometown of Ashbourne.
John learnt bridge at school and became proficient while at college in Cambridge. In 1976 he formed a partnership with Graham Kirby. By February 1978 John and Graham had their first England cap and subsequently represented Great Britain many times, including 7 European Championships, 2 Bermuda Bowls and 2 Olympiads with the highlights being 1st place in the 1991 European, 2nd in the 1987 European and 2nd in the 1987 Bermuda Bowl. When Graham Kirby retired from international bridge in 1997 John represented England in a further European Championship partnering Danny Davies. In August 2006 John played with John Holland in the 9th European Championship. In addition to his playing career John has been non-playing captain of the GB open team in the 1984 Olympiad in Seattle and of the GB team in the 1996 Junior European Championships.
Domestically John won the Gold Cup 6 times, Crockfords 3 times, the Hubert Phillips 5 times plus many of the EBU's congress events. John played 38 Camrose matches for England (won 32, drawn 1, lost 5) making him England's most capped player. Administratively John was a member of the EBU Laws and Ethics Committee for a number of years in the 1980s and was a member of the panel of referees ever since. He also ran occasional training sessions for the England junior squad and for groups of grateful and admiring Derbyshire players.
Outside bridge John had two main interests, orienteering, where he particularly enjoyed course planning in the Dales, and playing classical piano music where his favourite works were those of Robert Schumann.