Ex-Harrow student killed by muggers on Swiss trip

A FORMER Harrow schoolboy died from a single punch to the head while on a business trip to Switzerland, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Tom Lamb, 28, an international commodities trader, was killed by a mugger in Lucerne.

Today his parents spoke of their grief at the loss of their youngest son.

His mother Jenny, 67, speaking from the family home in Wandsworth, said: "We are devastated. It's been an unbelievable shock."

Mr Lamb's father Jeremy, 64, a retired businessman, said: "You don't expect it in Switzerland and not in Lucerne.

"Tom was out with a friend in the city. They were walking back to their hotel when four men came up to them and while one engaged Tom's friend in conversation, one of the other guys just hit Tom. He went down and never regained consciousness. It would appear there was only one punch."

The attackers fled but were tracked down after Swiss police offered a reward. A man originally from Tibet is in custody and is said to have confessed to punching Mr Lamb but denies murder. It is thought the gang has a history of committing muggings in Lucerne.

Mr Lamb was taken first to a local hospital which did not have the expertise to treat him and then to a specialist unit an hour's drive away.

His employer, global trading company Trafigura, flew his parents by private jet to Switzerland where they watched as doctors turned off his life support machine.

Mr Lamb said: "The doctors told us they had done all the examinations which showed his brain was not active and they switched the life support machine off. He couldn't breathe on his own."

Mrs Lamb added: "The hospital was so upset. They said: It just doesn't happen here'."

Tom was the youngest of his siblings — three brothers and a sister. The boys all attended Harrow.

He left the school in 1998 and went to Bristol University where he studied economics, accountancy and law before taking a job with Trafigura in 2001.

He worked at its office in Lucerne for almost six years before transferring to the Shanghai branch, where he spent the last 18 months. One of the firm's youngest traders, he dealt in lead and zinc and had recently been promoted to Trafigura's gold desk.

"He said the only thing that would beat doing his job would be playing for Arsenal," his father said of a son he described as "larger than life".

He was on one of his frequent business trips to Europe when he died on 26 October.

A funeral service will be held at
All Saints Church, Fulham, on 17 November at noon. Donations to the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation can be made in Tom's name via the website www.justgiving.com/happyaslarr