Matthew Leeming Obituary, Death – An old roommate of Boris Johnson has passed away. He was the one who once referred to Johnson as “the most talented person of my generation.” On November 29, 2022, the body of Matthew Leeming, age 58, was discovered. Matthew Leeming had been a roommate of the previous Prime Minister when they were both attending university. It has not been discovered what caused his death at this time. According to the Times, Mr. Leeming had “variously” worked as a journalist, writer, adventurer, serial entrepreneur, and street pastor throughout his life. He became fast friends with Mr. Johnson early on in both of their Oxford studies, and the two of them even lived in the same house throughout their time at Oxford.
He published these words in a piece for the Telegraph: “Even before he became President of the Union, it was clear that he was the most talented person of my generation.” Balliol, the college that Mr. Johnson attended, is renowned for its “effortless superiority,” which Mr. Leeming referred to as “that infuriating British capacity to excel without apparently having put any work into it.” According to Mr. Leeming, Mr. Johnson “embodies this to an extent that he may label preternatural.” He went on to say, “I have never been more honored than I am right now to be able to call this extraordinarily talented man my buddy.”
Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Leeming was involved in a wide variety of enterprises, some of which included a language school, tile manufacturers, businesses in stationery printing, marble exports, and oil, as well as an Afghan tourism company. During the latter endeavor, Mr. Leeming accidentally came into contact with al-Qaeda as he worked to establish his tourism company in the region despite the continuous fighting. Unbeknownst to Mr. Leeming, the two “Moroccan journalists” who were staying in the room next to him while he was in the mountains of Afghanistan were on a suicide mission to kill the anti-Taliban guerrilla commander General Ahmed Shah Massoud. This was a prelude to the attack on the World Trade Center that would take place just two days later on September 9.
Since the time that he and Mr. Johnson shared a home, they had continued to be good friends. In fact, Mr. Johnson’s appointment as editor of The Spectator in 1999, which proved to be an important turning point in his career, was apparently the result of a recommendation from Mr. Leeming. Later on, he expressed his support for Mr. Johnson’s ambition for the prime ministerial position in 2019 by penning a column. He stated that he was “appalled at the abuse people have been flinging at him simply because they disagree with his position on Europe.” He claimed that he had been “appalled at the abuse people have been hurling at him.” He compared the former prime minister to Ronald Reagan and explained that both of them had “a low boredom threshold” and did not “do detail.” He went on to say that “Boris has it in him to be an equally excellent prime minister.”
Mr. Leeming also made analogies to Winston Churchill in his writing, saying things such, “When you meet Winston,” which was a quote from Pamela Plowden about Winston Churchill, and “you see all his defects.” However, you will spend the rest of your life learning about his excellent qualities. The same may be said for Boris. His shortcomings are extremely clear to see, and the Facebook mob has been very vocal in pointing them out. Following a string of controversies, including the fact that he was the first Prime Minister in history to be found guilty of breaching the law, Mr. Johnson was eventually forced to step down from his post as Prime Minister.
It is not the only time that Mr. Leeming has commented on modern politicians; he has also had some harsh words for Rory Stewart. Mr. Leeming was a friend of the former Prime Minister and attended Oxford. In anticipation of Mr. Stewart’s appointment to the cabinet of the Conservative Party, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation was established by him with the intention of restoring the buildings in Kabul’s Old City. On the other hand, Mr. Leeming criticized the undertaking, calling it a “Potemkin village-cum-Sloane Ranger summer camp.”
According to the Times, Mr. Leeming experienced a mental collapse in 2012, which led to a subsequent fall in both his finances and his health. The following year (2017), he was discovered dozing off in the churchyard of St. Peter’s, a Roman Catholic church located in Winchester. Later on, he collaborated with Adam Holloway, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Gravesham, on projects aimed at helping the homeless and also planned a business venture including legal cannabis goods. Before he passed away, Mr. Leeming also established a foundation to help Afghans who were on the verge of hunger and worked as a street pastor.
