• Reluctant duke with common touch

  Seldom, from the inside, can the real - as opposed to the idealised - lives of the British aristocracy have been regarded with such bleakly astute realism as by John Robert Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford, who has died aged 85. p
  

• A strong commitment to the world environment

  Liam (Bill) McCumiskey, who died last week aged 64, left his mark from Sudan to Zambia, and in Ireland with an important and well-regarded institutional legacy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). p
  

• Rugged general with controversial record

  General Jacques Massu, who died last weekend aged 94, was one of modern France's best-known military figures - involved in the liberation of Paris, the Suez crisis, and the French wars in Indo-China and, notoriously, Algeria. Rugged, and with a growling voice, everything about him suggested the fighting soldier. p
  

• Maverick Democratic Senator who championed liberal causes

  United States Senator Paul Wellstone, who died last Friday in a plane crash in the middle of a tough re-election campaign, was a leading champion of liberal causes in the "happy warrior" tradition of Minnesota Democratic politics. p
  

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