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Kautilia


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Thanks for letting us know, Dirge. He was a regular at the monthly French Session, at The George Inn, Southwark. The last time I saw him was at the December 2012 session, and not having seen him since then, thought something must have happened to him. I hoped his absence might be due to illness. That he is dead, is totally shocking. He certaintly was an "odball" character. Very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful; he had a marvelous singing voice.

Chris

Yes, do you remember him adding Russian words to that recording of Moscow nights I posted? At least i assume they were Russian. It sounded quite impressive anyway, in its 'late in the evening' style, and it was great fun.

 

Kautilya was an ancient Indian court adviser, 'The Indian Macchiavelli'. (Predated him by 1800 yrears so perhaps that's a bit backwards as an assessment). Peter may have been clever enough but I don't think he had the streak of villainy necessary. I had no idea quite how far he went to help people out until this.

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I too was looking forward to seeing Peter at Swaledale,

 

What Dirge hasn't mentioned is that he made a splendid - and very moving - tribute to Peter by playing Nimrod at the Sunday afternoon concert.

 

Peter was quite a character and I will miss his posts.

 

Jeremy

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Dirge,

 

Sorry to hear that, and thanks for letting us know. Like many, I don't think I ever met him (although I might have at my one trip to Swaledale 8 or so years ago, I suppose), but I knew him through his frequent posts.

 

Is it a breach of security to know what his full name was? Seems like it couldn't hurt. Anonymity is fine for some in life, I guess, but seems rather impersonal in death for some reason. Where did he live?

 

And one thing I was meaning to ask him about for years was his icon photo. Anyone know what that was? Is it a photo of him? Or perhaps the Indian Machiavelli thing?

 

Rest in peace, Pete.

Edited by Dan Worrall
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I also never met Peter, and indeed never knew his real name until reading this topic.

I join with everyone else expressing my regrets at the loss and offer my condolences to the family.

 

- John Wild

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Actually, Anglo-Irishman (John) and myself met up on a concertina meeting a few weeks ago where we were able to present a rendition of the Portsmouth stowaway (http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=13416), a song inspired by a story that Kautilya relayed. Had we known about his whereabouts, it would have been a good opportunity to dedicate the song to him and his presence on the forum... Peter, thanks for this and many other inspirations you gave us here on the forum. You are sadly missed.

 

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Is it a breach of security to know what his full name was? Seems like it couldn't hurt. Anonymity is fine for some in life, I guess, but seems rather impersonal in death for some reason. Where did he live?

Yes, does anybody know his last name or how to find any family? Remember how satisfying it was to finally connect with Leo's family, who had no idea how much he was a part of this community?

 

And one thing I was meaning to ask him about for years was his icon photo. Anyone know what that was? Is it a photo of him? Or perhaps the Indian Machiavelli thing?
Here's the photo:

av-7328.jpg?_r=0

It is certainly not a photo of him (at least not a recent one). I only met him twice, in dark pub rooms a year ago, but I recall a roly-poly gentleman in perhaps his late 60s.

 

[edited to add the photo]

Edited by David Barnert
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K is Dr Peter O Neill. Contact through the swaledale folks is the best I can do,

 

I'd have put Peter in his 50's but certainly I'd always assumed his avatar was an old picture of himself engaged in some extreme adventure in his younger days. I'd have said he was wearing a peaked cap but zooming in I wonder if the 'peak' is just mud and he's got a headscarf and a gipsy style shirt on. I wish I'd bothered to ask the man himself when I still could.

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Sad news Dirge. Pete was a character and always very knowledgeable and helpful. We met up all over the place and he was always full of energy and interested in a whole range of things.His knowledge of portable recording devices was impressive and certainly helped me. Condolences to his family.

 

Dirge, I was pleased when you played his favourite Nimrod Variations at the Swaledale meet in the Reeth Hall, I for one had tears in my eyes rembering the larger than life character of Peter O'Brien. He marched to the beat of his own drum! .

Edited by michael sam wild
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I've been a bit quiet myself in this community over the last few (for me very eventful) years and so rather missed the majority of Kautilia's posts, and those I did see were somewhat puzzling. Now as I read the messages here I find myself wishing I'd known him better. R.I.P.

 

Chris

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Yes, very sad news.

So often, after reading one of his postings, I'd think, "That's one Internet acquaintance I'd like to meet personally." That is now not to be - at least not on This Side.

 

Thanks for telling us his real name, Dirge. Whenever I sing the song that he inspired Rüdiger Asche and myself to write, I'll introduce it as "based on a story told by our late friend Peter O'Neill."

 

It'll be for you, Kautilya, wherever you are!

 

John

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I've just googled [memoriam peter o'neill london] but nothing promising jumped out.

 

My quick google search reveals just one person who might be considered as matching Kautilya:

 

Look here, here and (apparently more recent) here...

I saw that, but while these pictures at those sites look like the same person, they don't look like the Pete I met in the pubs.

 

Peter%20O%27Neill.jpg PeterO.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sorry to hear of his passing. Met him at ecmw and he seemed a genrous person. I do have 2 photo's from that weekend with him in. Didn't realise that was his name.

post-6972-0-83185500-1370456107_thumb.jpgpost-6972-0-86474100-1370456097_thumb.jpg

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