James Ulysses Bond

James Ulysses Bond, born Christopher Wilson, was a homeless person who lived in a tent by the River Cam in Newnham, Cambridgeshire. Bond contributed the story Eating Escargot in Sheffield to Willow Walker magazine, which was excerpted in The Guardian newspaper. After featuring in a documentary about homelessness, he was taken in over Christmas 2006 by Mick Lazarus of Milton, Cambridgeshire. Bond took a place with Emmaus but left, and later developed kidney problems. He died of natural causes and was found dead on September 20, 2007. Lazarus offered to fund a funeral, but appealed in the Cambridge Evening News for help with the costs as neither he nor Bond's sister Wendi Wilson could afford to pay the full £1500. The leader and deputy leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council donated to the appeal, which eventually raised £1250. The balance was paid by the newspaper's charity fund, Press Relief. A funeral was held at Cambridge Crematorium on October 16, 2007. Bond is among those remembered in the Cambridge Memorial Garden.