Well-liked retired teacher looked forward to his pension
After years of struggling with rheumatism, depression and little money, the extra cash his pension would bring was going to improve his lifestyle considerably.
Although he was poor financially and also bereft of family, he was rich in friends and personality.
Friend Susan Chapman, of Cambridge, said: “Everyone said he was a loner but I’m not sure he was. He was just a private person.
“To everyone’s surprise, he knew lots and lots of people but he tended to keep them separate from one another.
“I believe he had no close family left but he had a family of close friends.
“There were friends he went to the opera or concerts with. If he could not go, then he’d meet them in restaurants. He was not really a man for the pub.
“He had a great sense of humour. He was incredibly observant and witty and he was very perceptive.
“He had shelves of books and loved reading. He was also a poet.”
Mr Hendra was born in Neath, Wales, in May, 1940, and when he was a boy his father walked out.
His mother remarried but died when Mr Hendra was a young man. He lost contact with his stepfather.
Educated in London, he went to Britain’s prestigious Bristol University and his love of books led him to become an English teacher.
Although he retired early and had difficulties due to illness, he lived in plush Hampstead in north-west London, a place he loved.
Determined to stay there despite his limited means, he even sold his first-floor flat at 19 Pond Street to move into cheaper attic rooms at the top of the building.
Mr Hendra was gay and Hampstead is home to a large gay community who enjoy a tolerance there that they cannot find elsewhere in Britain.
Central to the place is Hampstead Heath, a 791-acre park in the suburb, where gay men meet for sex and companionship.
After the end of a long-term relationship in the 1990s and a brief one in 2004, Mr Hendra had sought casual gay liaisons on the heath.
On May 2, he met Papazian but days later, in a diary, confessed that he did not fancy him, apparently referring to him as “dreadful Mark”.
Just a month and a day later, Mr Hendra would be dead in his attic flat, his throat slit with a knife and his head battered with a hammer.
Friends of Mr Hendra are still finding it very hard to come to terms with his death and the way it happened.
Ms Chapman said: “The sad thing is that Gerard was just getting more cheerful (in the time before his death).
“He had been suffering from crippling rheumatism and he was very hard up.
“He said he knew he would be better off once he reached the age of 65 because of the retirement pension he would get.
“We used to phone each other and I really do miss speaking to him now. He loved being teased.
“He used to entertain in his flat in a small way and I remember that place with such affection,” she said.
“(After the death) I went back with a friend to reclaim some books that had been left and it was horrendous because he had been killed there.
It is still hard to believe what has happened. It is very difficult for us come to terms with what happened. I don’t think we will completely.”
