Christopher Haskins

Christopher Haskins left uson March 31, 2026, just shy of his eighty‑eighth birthday, and the house feels quieter without his booming laugh echoing down the hallway. Born on New Year’s Day 1938 in a small village near Cork, Chris grew up with the scent of peat smoke and the sound of fiddle tunes drifting from the kitchen window—memories he carried with him wherever he went. After moving to England to pursue a career in business, he never lost that Irish sparkle; friends still recall how he’d start a meeting with a quick joke or a line from an old ballad, instantly putting everyone at ease. His rise to become a life peer and Labour member of the House of Lords from 1998 to 2020 was impressive, but those who knew him best will remember the man who could talk politics over a pint and then spend the next hour teaching his grandson how to throw a perfect stone across a pond. Family was the cornerstone of Chris’s world. He met his beloved wife, Margaret, at a community dance in Dublin, and their partnership lasted sixty‑five years—filled with Sunday roasts that smelled of rosemary and potatoes, endless card games on rainy afternoons, and bedtime stories that always ended with a moral about kindness. Together they raised three children—Emma, Tom, and Sarah—who each inherited his curiosity and his habit