Jeffrey was a friend.

I was a guest at his wedding in 1966 and at his last grand birthday party.

We met in1963 at Oxford University, when both of us, and a couple of hundred aspiring athletes, assembled at the famous Iffley Road running track where, in 1954, Roger Bannister had achieved the first four-minute mile.

I was 19, straight from a Somerset grammar school, and Jeffrey a 23 year old mature student with some experience of the world.

While we were running down the back straight, he pointed across the track and said: “That is the man who has to be impressed.”

He was referring to the then president of the Oxford University Athletics Club.

The Oxford University Athletics Team in 1966. Front centre is Jeffrey Archer, with Tim Taylor to his left. PHOTO: Tim Taylor.
The Oxford University Athletics Team in 1966. Front centre is Jeffrey Archer, with Tim Taylor to his left. PHOTO: Tim Taylor. (Tim Taylor)

Even then, he knew where the opportunities lay.

We both competed AC against Cambridge in 1964, five and six.

Jeffrey became club president in 1965-66 and I followed him for 1966-67.

He was a superb president.

His inspiring presence at the track, day-in and day-out, and his drive, enthusiasm, and bounce made it an exciting place to train and socialise.

In our first year at Oxford, Jeffrey became ‘news’ by raising money for Oxfam and getting the Beatles to Oxford before persuading them to play at an Oxfam concert in Trafalgar Square.

I could say much more about Jeffrey’s three years at Oxford, an account of his time there could not be invented!

Suffice to say that he was a very good athlete and a great president who established OUAC as the leading athletics club in the country.

When I became president, I inherited the minutes book from Jeffrey.

Spelling, grammar, and sentence structure were not his strong points, and yet he became a world famous author.

West Somerset's Tim Taylor, who was a lifelong friend of Lord Jeffrey Archer since their time together at university.
West Somerset's Tim Taylor, who was a lifelong friend of Lord Jeffrey Archer since their time together at university. (Contributed)

Jeffrey was a complex character, who grew-up in Weston-super-Mare and attended Wellington School.

He was Somerset through-and-through and a great supporter of Somerset cricket.

When Somerset were playing, he was known to gatecrash the team’s private dressing-room, barriers did not exist for Jeffrey.

The Somerset team, captained by Brian Rose, even appeared on BBC’s ‘This is Your Life, Jeffrey Archer’.

Many obituaries for Jeffrey in the national media cover the ups and downs of his colourful life, and his friends, aware of Jeffrey’s mistakes and his jail sentence, speak warmly of his warmth, good humour, and infectious enthusiasm.

There was a very caring side to Jeffrey.

He encouraged and supported the disadvantaged and underdog, possibly because he himself had started life disadvantaged.

Jeffrey invented some of his life, in the way he invented characters in his books, but despite his flaws he achieved a very great deal.

He was an enticing and all-involving character.

It was an honour for my wife Margaret and I to be guests at Jeffrey’s delayed Covid-cancelled 80th birthday party held in the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall - where else?

So, ‘Jeffrey Archer, this was Your Life’, and what an amazing life you lived!