Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the life of 19-year-old Barnaby Webber, one of the three people killed in the Nottingham attacks, at an emotional service in Somerset.
About 600 people – family, friends, fellow sports players – packed in to Taunton Minster to pay tribute to Webber, described as a beautiful, beloved, open-hearted young man, a hero.
On a wet and windy day, Webber’s father, David, said he had been besotted by a son who had turned into a loving, caring, brilliant young man.
His mother, Emma, said she loved him more that words could convey and the family’s agony was “far too deep” to describe. “I don’t know how we are doing this,” she said. “Nobody can begin to take our pain away … We remain a family of four, just one of us isn’t here right now.”
Webber’s younger brother, Charlie, said his influence was the only reason he was able to stand up with the confidence to address the congregation at what the order of service described as a “send-off”.
He said when his brother went off to university he pretended he didn’t care. Addressing his brother, he said: “That was far from the truth. I was scared, so scared I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t want to face my life without you around me. It felt like I had lost my armour but I still have to fight.
“That seems so stupid now, grieving someone who is still alive, but at that time I was pulled through knowing you were going to come back from uni and I was going to see you again. Now it’s the same grief but I know I’m not going to see you again, at least not here.”
Charlie quoted Master Oogway, a character from Kung Fu Panda: “Quit, don’t quit … Noodles, don’t noodles … You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.”
He said they had “stupid” arguments about who would die first but thought they were invincible. He told his brother: “You can run to the ends of the universe and I’ll still be there, I’ll still be there and we’ll watch Star Wars together one last time.” But he joked that he knew his brother’s true favourite film was Cars 2.
Charlie said he was angry when he first heard what had happened to his brother. “I wanted to set the world on fire,” he said. He was also angry that his brother had not run. But he was now proud that his brother had stood his ground and “died being the person you always were – my hero”.
Among the congregation were many friends from Taunton school, Bishop Hull cricket club in the town – Webber was a keen cricketer – and the University of Nottingham. Also in attendance were the family of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, who died alongside Webber. O’Malley-Kumar, a medical student, and the third victim, Ian Coates, 65, were remembered at the service.
Webber’s wicker coffin was brought into the church to the Annie Lennox song Into the West. The Right Rev Ruth Worsley, the bishop of Taunton, said the life of the teenager had been “cruelly taken”.
Webber’s former teachers spoke of the “swirl of laughter and kindness” around him. “He made you feel front and centre of his everything, that was one of his myriad of superpowers,” said Rob Gallimore, a history teacher. Friends said Webber pushed boundaries. One said he was an “antidote” to pain and loneliness, a cure, a fix.
Webber and O’Malley-Kumar were stabbed to death as they walked home from a night out in June. Coates was killed about an hour later.
Valdo Calocane, 31, is charged with their murder and the attempted murder of three pedestrians by driving a van into them in the city centre.
