Tributes paid to 'charming' wine industry leader, Patrick Sandeman, after tragic skydiving accident
Witnesses told how Patrick Sandeman collided with a fellow skydiver in mid-air
Monday 24 September 2012
Related articles
Friends and colleagues have today paid tribute to one of Britain’s leading wine merchants who was killed on Saturday in a tragic parachuting accident.
Patrick Sandeman, 53, who was co-owner of the Lea & Sandeman chain in west London, died after crashing into a fellow jumper 50 feet above the ground.
The collision caused the jumpers' parachutes to collapse.
The 53-year-old father of three, who was an experienced parachutist, died at the scene despite frantic efforts by paramedics to save him.
The second man, who is believed to be in his 20s and French, was taken to hospital with broken legs and a damaged spine.
Emergency services went to Sibson airfield, near Peterborough, shortly after 3.30pm on Saturday, EEAST said, but were unable to save his life.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Speaking to the Evening Standard today Mr Sandeman's widow, Katie Sandeman, 52, described him as a "wonderful man and a wonderful family man."
Friends and colleagues today described Mr Sandeman as 'an inspiration', 'charming' and 'talented'.
Mr Sandeman was a well-respected member of the wine industry and “one of the greatest blokes in the business”, friends told the Evening Standard.
Jancis Robinson, a wine critic who writes for the Financial Times, paid tribute to Mr Sandeman, saying "a very bright light has been extinguished".
She wrote on her website: "I'm sure I am not alone in having found Patrick one of the most appealing and entertaining characters in the wine business.
"A total ornament to the British wine trade, he was a member of the Sandeman family of port and sherry fame, managing to be devastatingly handsome but not intimidatingly so. Charming but not oleaginous. Well informed but engaging.
"Great company, in a word - and extremely talented in his ability to hand-pick great wines from, particularly, Italy. He occupied a unique place in the world of wine.
"I was dimly aware that he was keen on derring do, but he certainly didn't ram it down my throat. He was a thoroughly benign, modernising member of the Vintners' Company, and I have to say that this is the very first death in the UK wine trade that has come as a complete and affronting shock to me, and doubtless to many, many others.
"Our very deepest condolences to his equally delightful wife Katy and their children."
-
Stand by for another DECADE of wet summers, say Met Office meteorologists
-
Bankers could face jail after report urges the Government to introduce new criminal offence for reckless management
-
Feat of engineering: Incredible photographs show construction beneath New York's Second Avenue
-
World news in pictures
-
Google challenges US surveillance gagging order
- 1 Disability campaigners celebrate 'victory' after government rethink over plans to make it more difficult to claim disability benefits
- 2 Bankers could face jail after report urges the Government to introduce new criminal offence for reckless management
- 3 Breaking the Silence: In the reality of occupation, there are no Palestinian civilians – only potential terrorists
- 4 We never knew Nigella Lawson - and we still don’t
- 5 Vice pulls 'breathtakingly tasteless' fashion shoot glorifying the suicides of famous female authors from Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf
How will you make today delicious?
Tell us how you plan to make today delicious and you could win a £50 M&S gift card.
Win a Nook® Simple Touch eReader
Find out how Nook® is supporting the Evening Standard's Get Reading campaign - and your chance to win one.
Free reading festival for families
Follow The Standard's campaign to get London's children reading - and experience this unique event at Trafalgar Square on 13 July.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Independent Dating
iJobs General
FX Options Front Office Java / C# Developer
£500 - £600 per day: Orgtel: FX Options Front Office Java / C# Developer - Ba...
Project Manager - Front Office - Regulatory IT
£600 - £700 per day: Orgtel: Project Manager - Front Office - Regulatory IT C...
Lighting Design Engineer
£33000 - £35000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...
Are you an Primary NQT looking for your first role in Essex?
£21000 - £22000 per annum: Randstad Education Chelmsford: NQTs required now fo...
Day In a Page
First night: The Cripple of Inishmaan
Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention
Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title






