PATTAYA, Thailand – A British expat who had cryptic crossword puzzles published in The Listener, The Times and the Daily Telegraph died in Pattaya just months before his 80th birthday. Andrew Stewart was born in Buckinghamshire and trained as a teacher, later becoming head of the English department at a large London comprehensive school.
He took early retirement and moved to Thailand in the early 1990s where he furthered his lifelong interest in bird watching with a collection of tens of thousands of photos taken throughout the country. He was a popular cryptic crossword setter and was favoured, in a highly competitive compiler market, by the top UK newspapers and magazines even after they moved online.
Andrew also sent puzzles to the now defunct and less prestigious newspaper Pattaya Today which published them without realizing they were cryptic (every word must be analyzed for clues) rather than based on general knowledge. This led to readers complaining that the answers given were ridiculous.
His health took a downward path last year when he was diagnosed with the serious lung disease bronchiectasis although he continued to submit crosswords to UK publications until a few weeks ago. He died of a heart attack on July 14 after emergency hospital admission. The British embassy and Andrew’s UK-based siblings have been contacted prior to funeral rites being conducted in Pattaya.
