BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA POLICE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONUNITED KINGDOM BRANCH

& BSAPTRUST

ISSUE No: 42 SUMMER 1999

I' g y llREGf PRO PA1 8pPO l ~ C„

OUTPOST

ur heartiest congratulations toour Honorary Commissioner,Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth,

The Queen Mother, on entering her100'" year. To see her on her birthdaywalking around, chatting and directingher driver with a firm hand, should bean inspiration to us all.

N ow some sad news: We will nolonger be able to meet at Trenchard

House. The building has been closed andis unlikely to open again as a policesection house. Life must go on, sohaving sought permission, we have beenpermitted to meet in the downstairs barat the Victory Services Club, SeymourStreet, London, nearest Tube: MarbleArch. The bar opens at 5.30 pm and allmembers and guests entering must signthe sheet at the front porter's table. So1"Tuesday's are back. See you there.

ur Regimental Dinner, as will beseen from elsewhere in this issue

will be on Friday 29 October 1999 alsoat the Victory Services We have 140seats so it will be a case of first come—first served. Raffle tickets are includedin with this issue and we hope for yoursupport.

F inally: SITUATION VACANT: Aftera great deal of deliberation and

thought Adrienne and I have decided thatwe cannot continue to produce the Out-post after the Spring issue 2000. Webelieve that we now have a magazine thatwe, as a Branch, can be proud of, but aswith every magazine produced through-out the world, the editorial team can getstale and should be changed. We havedecided to go, before it gets toonoticeable, having done it for 10 years orso now. So we are looking for a willingvolunteer, with some time on his or herhands, ability to operate a wordprocessor, and edit stories, news and arti-cles into a readable magazine for thebenefit of our members. The rewards arethe satisfaction of knowing you are play-ing a big part in enabling our members tokeep in touch throughout the world. Wehave enjoyed our time, but feel that ourOutpost must feel the winds of changeand have some fresh air blown through it.Any willing member, please contact theHon Sec or Chairman as soon as possible,for further information. Initial help andadvice will be available from Adrienne soyou won't be dropped in the deep end.

ROLL OFHONOUR

2324 H. G. SEWARD died in Zim-babwe on 12.3.1999 just short of his100th birthday.

Aux. George McNEII. died in Zim-babwe following criminal activity on19.2. 1999.We have been advised of the death of2537 Graham Cecil "Aussie" ROG-ERS who passed away in Bulawayo.Aussie served from July 1923 andretired as Asst. Comm. in April 1958.Natal report the passing of 2872 Al-bert Cyril VOWLES in Harare on4.5.982873 John Thomas "Tommy"THOMPSON MBE passed away inhospital on Sunday 25th April 1999following a short illness. He is sur-vived by his wife Isobel, known byall as Izzy, and their daughter Annand her family. Tommy would havebeen 93 years young in Septemberthis year. Tommy joined the Forceon 1.4. 1927 and retired asAsst. Comm. on 18.12.1960 after al-most 34 years service. He hadalways been an active member of ourBranch and he will be sadly missed.We extend our sympathies to Izzyand Anne.

Harare have belatedly advised thedeath of 2988 Oswald OveryTURNER in Harare on 15.11.1990.He served from 30.12.27 to 2. 10.49.I ollowing his retirement as a Ser-

geant in Gatooma, he joined that mu-nicipality where he remained formany years.

3236 Eric Reginald THOMSON diedin Chinoyi on 8.4.99. I-Ie served asa trooper from 1.1.31 to 31.12.35 andthen became a farmer in Chinoyi.

3363 Trooper Robert Cecil BERGERpassed away in Bulawayo on4.1.1999. Bob was a staunch sup-porter of the Association and a mem-ber of the United Kingdom Branch.He "did his three" between 34 and 36but always remembered his rootswith the British South Africa PoliceHe is survived by his wife Sybil.Harare advise that 3522 WilliamThornh ill GILFILLAN passed awayin Harare during July 1999.We regret to advise death of 3797Reginald Albert French COULTONon 8.4.99 in Harare. He had beenvery ill for several months. Regattested 15.1.39 and retired as Supton 14.1.64. He was seconded to EastAfrica during the 39-45 war. Hewas in Staff Branch for most of hisservice.4357 Ernest George GIBBONS diedHarare 11.6. 1999. He attested on29.11.48 and retired as Det.Ch. Insp.on 21.2.69.We regret to record the death of 4382James (Jim) Curt Paine. He passedaway on 31st. July 1999 after alengthy battle against leukaemia.Jim, who was born in London on 4th.April 1925, served in the Royal Navyduring the Second World War. Sub-sequent to his demobilisation Jimjoined the Force on 10th. January

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1949 as a Trooper and progressedthrough the ranks to Inspector retir-ing on 3rd. November 1969. Essen-tially he was a man of action, prefer-ring the outdoor life to a desk. Dur-ing his retirement, he would arrive atthe monthly gatherings in London onhis bicycle. He would cycle fromhis home in Hedge End to catch thetrain at Eastleigh for Waterloo,thereafter cycling to the venue of theday, returning home by the sameroute. Jim was an active Scout, be-coming a King's Scout in his earlieryears. He was a member of theRoyal British Legion and was thealmoner of his local branch of thatAssociation. Deep down, Jim wasin many ways a loner, who enjoyedhis own company, in some ways shyand reserved, but essentially a manof deep religious conviction andcourage. When he learned of hisillness, he said, "I have sorted every-thing out, all is in order and now Ijust sit and wait for that last call. "His faith prevented any fear of death.He was cremated at SouthamptonCrematorium on 5th. August 1999.His coffin, draped with the flag ofthe British South Africa Police andbearing his cap, was borne in to thetune of "Westering Home", the slowmarch of the Royal Navy. The serv-ice concluded with the RegimentalMarch of the British South AfricaPolice, "Kum-A-Kye" played by theRegimental Band. The Force wasrepresented at the service by 4730Dave Hallward, 4882 Peter Dancer,4158 Tim Weimer and 5725 PhilMead who had regularly visited Jimduring his illness. To Maureen, his

wife and to his family, the sympathyof his colleagues in the Force is sin-cerely tendered.

We are sad to report the death of4575 Joseph John (Joe Joe)WALKER. He had been ill for sometime and finally suffered renalfailure.

New Zealand have advised that 4641Colin Bruce "Buster" GRIFFITHSpassed away in New Zealand on8.11.1998. He had served as aConstable from 3.7.50 to 2.7.53.

5703 Ernie John "Hank" HANKIN-SON died in Johannesburg, RSA on29.7.99 at the age of 60. He was anenthusiastic member of the Regimen-tal Association and past Chairman ofthe Transvaal Branch for manyyears. Hank was born in London on28'" August 1938 and attested in theBSAP on 14 April 1957. He servedinitially in the Uniform Branch inBulawayo and in 1960 transferred tothe CID. He remained in the plain-clothes branch for the remainder ofhis service either with CID or Spe-cial Branch and served in Bulawayo,Wankie and Salisbury. At the timeof his retirement in 1977 he was thePolice Liaison Officer at the Rhode-sia Office in Pretoria. After a shortventure into the corporate world,Hank set up his own coin and medalbusiness which he remained at untilhis death on 28'" July 1999. Formany years, almost from the time hearrived in Johannesburg, he took anactive role in the Regimental Asso-ciation and was the guiding lightthere fora large number of years. He

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was instrumental in raising the an-nual dinner to the high standard thatis now expected of the TransvaalBranch. Hank had been sufferingfrom lymphoma cancer for about 18months. He leaves a widow, adaughter and a son who himself re-quires much medical attention fol-lowing brain damage after a car acci-dent last. - Dave Sloman 5965.We have heard from Australia that5953 Mike NATHAN, former In-spector with Dog section for manyyears, passed away suddenly on15.4.1999. He suffered a heart attackwhilst on the Golf Driving Range.

6017 John HILL has advised us ofthe death of Cecil (Rusty)CLEAVER P/R? F/R A PATUShabani, who died in Nelspruit onthe 22.4.1999 following long illness.

6073 Trevor McDONALD, died inFishhoek, Cape, on 13.2. 1999 fol-lowing heart surgery. Trevor servedalmost 22 years, retiring as ChiefInspector with the Signals Branch in1980.Eastern Cape have advised that 8027Fred VARKEVISSER passed awayon 24.4. 1999 after a brave fightagainst liver cancer. He was CIDHarare and well known to many inthe Western Cape.8542/10194 Clive Stewart MAN-NING died in Johannesburg on13.8.99.We have only just been advised ofthe death of 9326 Allen JohnSHRIVE following a heart attack in

Johannesburg on 20.7.98. He is sur-vived by his brother 9319 Doug

Shrive. Both were instructors.

WP 9 Louie Elaine BURROWS wholater became the wife of Tony GALEpassed away in Harare on 8.4.99 .

Sadly we report the death of Auxil-iary Inspector Donald ByardMacKAY, known to his I.alapanzifarm workers as "Madamombe".Don served at Que Que from 1971 to1981 during which time he trainedboth Regulars and Reservists in theirduties. Don passed away at the ageof 80 in Peebles, Scotland on22.3.1999. He is survived by hiswife Mary, former Mess Cateress atQue Que, and their son Barrie,former D/Supt.

Sadly we have to report the suddenpassing of P/r 19277 Roy JamesIRVING. Roy had supported ourBranch for over 10 Years, havingsupported the regular force as a Re-servist before he left the country. Hewas 49 years old and had just had aholiday in Zimbabwe. He came backto Scotland where he suffered a boutof influenza. This developed into avirus which caused heart failure. Hedied on 26'" July and his cremation,which was attended by family fromAfrica was held in Edinburgh on 4August.

FINAL FAREWELLSWe have learnt of the death of EricEdwards who passed away in Harareat the end of March 1999. Eric willlong be remembered by many for hisRBC radio broadcast of his "End OfThe Pier" program on a Sundaylunchtime which bought nostalgia tomany members.

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Cliff Rogers, our historian, sent in thissmall piece of history and comnrentsthat "Someone is bound to come upwith a reference to this man, after all,DSOs and three bars were not commonand the author is widely read.

Brigadier-GeneralEdward Allan

WOOD.

The above named person was men-tioned in Lyn MacDonald's latest bookabout WWI, "To the last man 1918".He was obviously a good commanderand it was mentioned he had beengiven his commission as a Captain inthe King's Shropshire Light Infantry onthe strength of his service with theBritish South Africa Police. Making acheck of records at the PRO identifieshim as the same person as Sub Lieuten-ant E. A. Wood of the BechuanalandBorder Police who appears on theVolksrust Nominal Roll of the JamesonRaiders. He then appears on the 1896Rhodesia Medal Roll as a lieutenantwith the Matabeleland Mounted Police.The following entry appears in Vol-ume II of Who Was Who: - CMG1919:DSO 1917:b May 1872, s of Os-wald Wood, Indian Civil Service, m1st 1898, Myra (d. 1914), d of Dr Cot-terell of Bognor: one s, 2nd 1916, Mar-guerite Dawson, d of James Birrell-Campbell, Engineer of Strachur, Ar-gyleshire and Petrogad, widow ofJoseph Henry Gillot of Berry Hall,Warwickshire. Served in 2nd Dragoon

Guards and 17th Lancers, Rhodesia1899/97 (medal with clasp), South Af-rican War, 1899-1902 (despatches,Queen's and King's Medal with 5

clasps), European War 1914-19, Bri-gade Commander 55th Infantry Bri-gade (despatches 7 times, CMG, DSOwith 3 bars, Croix de Guerre, wounded3 times): Commandant AuxiliaryDivision, Royal Irish Constabulary1920-22. Club Junior Naval andMilitary. Died 20th May 1930.The War Office file of his career has amemo written by Wood that states heserved as a Trooper in the army fromthe age of 19 years. He could not af-ford to take up an offer of a commis-sion in the Imperial Forces but ac-cepted and was enrolled in the BBP in1895. He took part in the JamesonRaid and was captured and deported onthe Harlech Castle with the otherprisoners. Like many of them he re-turned to Rhodesia and took part in the1896 Campaign. He then states that hestayed with the BSAP until 1900 andthen was offered and accepted a post inthe Transvaal as a District Commis-sioner in the Civil Administration. Heis not listed on the BSAP QSA or KSAmedal rolls so the medals mentionedabove must have been issued while hewas with another unit. He left theCivil Administration sometime in theearly 1900's and took up tin mining inSA until the outbreak of war in 1914then sold up and returned to the UKwhere he was commissioned into theKSLI as a Captain in October 1914. Hewas promoted Major before the battal-ion went to France in 1915 and roserapidly to Brigadier General earningthe DSO with 3 bars and the CMG bythe end of the war.

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Larry 4716 King's son Mark has beenworking for various safari companiesin Africa. Luckily his companywithdrew the Virungu Camp from theiritinerary shortly before thekidnap/murder incident in Uganda.Mark is currently with "World Travel"in Harare.

Alan 4547 and Jean RICH spent a cou-ple of months at the beginning of theyear in the Cape. They spent a night inBedford, Eastern Cape, with 4550 John& Meg WHITE. On leaving after histhree, John joined the Native Depart-ment and ended up as District Commis-sioner at Market Square, Harare. In thesame dorp is Garth MARWOOD aformer Plumtree teacher.

Andy Dougall 7002 is now running"The Shepherd's Arms" in Wigan.Why not support him if you are everthat way.John WILLOUGHBY 7050 has madecontact. 7002 Andy DOUGAL pointedhim in our direction over the email.They served in the same cadet squadand after leaving the Force, John alsoworked in Johannesburg with Andy.John advises news of John HUNTER-HARDY who is in charge of theSANTA Hospital at Port Alfred(Algoa to recruit?) Despite being incharge, John H-H enjoys opening theirBar particularly on Friday nights at4.30 sharp.

Jenny EYISON WP 354 has made In-ternet contact with WP 338 Sue MICK-LESFIELD (that was) and now mar-ried to Phillip. She is in Kwazulu,Natal and can be contacted through afriend at hogsnosega3iafrica. corn. Sueis also in touch with WP 350 Debbie

DALEY nee CLAYTON who is work-ing with the Australian Embassy inPretoria.

Tony HALL 6336 retired from policeservice in the UK and found part timeemployment at the local MagistratesCourt. From time to time he meetswith 5415 Jock Thomson at theirallotments, but to be truthful it is Janetwho does the work, whilst Jock super-vises over cold chibulies from theShed!"JB"6169 & 115 Bev JABOURhave moved from Canada to Akron,Ohio in the USA They are on theemail at "jaboor@compuserve. corn ".(See Changes of Address) Bev says,"JBhas been here in Akron since Octo-ber 1997 when we thought he wouldonly be on assignment for 18 months totwo years from Goodyear Canada.Having been here a few months he wasoffered an interesting position and wemade the decision to move countriesonce again. Thankfully we are only 5hours drive from Toronto which makesthe separation from our children a littleeasier. Both are still finishing theirpost-secondary education. I kept work-ing there until November when I

moved down to join JB permanently.We decided to build a new house andmoved into it in April 1999."April 25th was ANZAC Day and acontingent of Rhodesians marched atthe Hobsonville RSA Parade,Auckland, NZ, reports Dave Turner."Although we have been parading forsome six years, this occasion wasunique in that the Rhodesian Flag(Green and White) was marched to-gether with the original flag of theSelous Scouts. WALLY INSCH exBSAP & Selous Scouts carried his unit

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flag and ALEX WALKER ex NorthernRhodesia soccer and Rhodesia Regt.carried the Green and White. CLAREMACKINTOSH ex Andrew Flemingrepresented the Nursing Services.DAVID TURNER ex British South Af-rica Police and RR was also on paradeas were representatives of INTAF,SAS, Kenya Regt. , FLEET AIR ARM(Ian de Villiers, Botha Boy) and threeSouth Africans. At the completion ofthe main parade, we re-assembled as asection under the command of PAULNESS k marched to a quiet corner ofthe field to hold a short service inmemory of all Rhodesians. Remem-bered also was TREVOR WHYTEBSAP who, until his death, had alwaysjoined us. After the service we relaxedon the veranda, sunk a few ales, en-joyed each other's company and caughtup with the news. "Mike BRETT 5704 had a long holidayprior to Spring this year. The onlycomment he made was that he wouldnot care to be stationed in Johannes-burg at the present time! Mike wasput in touch with a former colleague inJohannesburg through the efforts of thelate Hank Hankinson, for which hepraises the true comradeship of theBritish South Africa Police.Bill ROYLE 5634 has now left school.Perhaps I should say he has retiredfrom his job at the North TraffordCollege. Still keeping his hands busyhe helps a friend whose business islooking after cars for people departingManchester airport for holidays!

Neal ARDEN 3004 sent his apologiesfor our AGM. Neal is now the oldestplaying member at Moor Park GolfClub. At the age of 89 he is nowplaying off the Ladies Tees. The Old-

est member of the club is 101 but he isno longer playing!The miniature model of a British SouthAfrica Police Mounted Policeman asmentioned in our last edition has re-sulted in several queries. Not least ofwhich is whether our members wouldlike a Mounted Trooper on Patrolrather than (or in addition to) theMounted Officer in ceremonial dress.Let our Hon. Sec. know your views.They are obtainable from Mrs AnneRandall, Asset Miniatures, 12 North-wood Drive, North Harrow, MiddlesexHA2 7PE Tel: 0181 868 0422.Doug HUBBARD 9137 wrote fromHervey Bay in Queensland, Australiawhere he and Jennifer now live. Hisemail is dhhubbard@bigpond. corn andI have his postal address if anyonewould like to make contact -MLLOn page 9 of the Spring edition, issue41, P/r 9948 Roy THOMPSON-HOL-LAND seemed to recall the initiative ofa European Constable who carried adead body from the scene, on amotorcycle. Well„within hours ofpublication, 5486 Mick WOOD con-tacted the Hon Sec. and confessed. . "Iwas posted to Waterfalls, from Depotin November 1996, to serve under 3933Joe SUDLOW, Member I/c. It wouldhave been about my third week therewhen the SDD report came in. Joe wasout in the Landrover, so the motorcycle was all that was available. Itwas not quite as recalled by P/r Roy T-H as rigor mortis had already set in andwhilst I sat on the petrol tank, my A/cMillion was on the pillion and thecorpse was between us. Also present atWaterfalls at the time was 5391 DickSMALLSHAW who was a member ofthe contingent that went to Nyasaland.

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Dict. will recall that a photograph ofliimsell appeared on the front pages ofthe National Press in that country. "'I hanks for the memories Mick - MLLMaurice AKLD 5109 hopes to be inthe UK in the late summer/autumn of2000. Can anyone put him in touchwith a cottage or apartment to rent fora couple of months preferably in theMidlands, or the Northwest'? (or ahouse swop?) Maurice can be con-tacted at 34, 1120 Guisachan Road,Kelowma, British Columbia, CanadaV I Y 9R5Jeff MANNING 7440 retires from theWest Yorkshire Police this year. Hehas bought a house in Eastern Capeand hopes to commute to spend eachsummer in RSA or England. (SeeChanges of Address)

Johnny JOHNSTON 3967 responded tothe last Outpost in both the I-Iank Ap-peal and the article by 6606 withmemories of Sipolilo. Johnny wasTrooper-in-Charge at Sipolilo in1947/1948 and was the first Europeanto reach the Zambezi since at least1936! "No Horses (Tsetse Fly). NoMotor vehicle (No Roads). It was along haul by cycle and foot, but veryrewarding to visit the neglected valleypeople. No schools, churches or medi-cal centres then. T' he patrol was areturn trip of 10 - 11 days living withthe local African villages and eatingtheir food. Thanks to 6606 I nowknow that there was a track to Kan-yemba in 1975, a post at MashumbiPools which he could get to in twohours. It used to take me four to fivedays. " (I have put Johnny in touchwith Taffy! - MLL)Martin 5947 and Grace EDWARDS

have now retired to Ontario. They arelooking forward to settling in to theirfinal residence after five months of anomadic existence following the com-pletion of the dam in Portugal. Visit-ing relations all over the world, thisconcluded with a period at their daugh-ter's holiday condominium in Water-ville Valley in the White MountainsNational Park.

Tom MEEKIN 5615 visited Durban forhis niece's wedding. Sadly whilstthere he was advised that his old friendfrom school days and Police days,Paddy STRANIX had suffered a severestroke during March and was in theAvenues Clinic, Harare. Tom changedall his plans and spent three days inZimbabwe. Paddy was unable to speakat that time with paralysis down theright side. Whilst there Tom madecontact with 5617 Austin WILMOTbut the trip was so disorganised thatnothing else was fitted in. Tom retireson 30/9/99 and it frightens him to thinkthat he worked longer for the LisburnCouncil than he did for the BSAPolice.Joe SAYER 3983 heard this storymany years ago, but it still amuses.There was once a group of four people- Everybody, Somebody, Anybody andNobody. One day, the group receivedan important job. Everybody wasasked to do it. He felt sure that Some-body would do it. Anybody couldhave done it, but nobody did it. Thismade Somebody very angry because itwas Everybody's job. Everybodythought that Somebody would do it, butNobody realised that Everybodywouldn't do it. It ended up withEverybody blaming Somebody whenNobody did what Anybody could havedone. "

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Wally PRA1T wrote immediately afterreceiving the last Outpost to let meknow that one of our missing members„Sheila GAULT had been abroad andwas moving to Brussels on her return.Mike Horner also made contact withSheila! Thanks to you all. Wallypoints out that I got it wrong in the lastissue. Bev is his daughter and not thedaughter of Bill and Gwen JONES.

with dogs; 1 A/Cst; couple of trafficbods; 1 Insp. and 1 bod in grey shirtholding FN - only criticism I have isthat one of the dogs looks more like ajackal. "Neville "Paddy" GARDINER 6090has been working hard getting his guesthouse business off the ground. ' Situ-ated in Hunstanton, Paddy offers a dis-count to Association members who

mi ht like a(Wally, sorry,MLL) Sadlysince the last edi-tion Gwen Joneshas passed awayin New Zealand.On the plus sideWally has re-es-tablished contactwith DorothyThompson(RWPO Hatfield)and Doreen Mac-Kenzie (RWSOHighlands) bothof whom madecontact throughRhodesians

gbreak at the sea-side - especiallyout of season.He is grateful tothose who madecontact followinghis arrival in theUK, amongstwhom was 4717Reg VINCENTwho lives not toofar away!Mike WILLS5920 has in-creased his familyduring the year.He is still in Abu

STOP PRESS

World-wide.Wally advises that he is in touch withR/S/0 Bill Wigoder who lives inSydney. "The Outpost does a magnifi-cent job," said Wally, "In the last issuealone there were 33 names which con-jured up many more memories. "BSAP Models: Alan RICH recentlypurchased a set from Louis Barr inCapetown and, he says, "They are wellworth the R350 asking price. Standard54mm size - and up to the standard ofmodel soldiers available in places suchas Hamley's and considerably less ex-pensive than models on offer inEngland. Set consists of 2 handlers

Dhabi where he is now Regional RetailManager. At a time when most of hiscontemporaries are looking atretirement, Mike will have to find an-other 20 years work! Is this an OldAge Record amongst our members?Roy IRVING P/r 19277 has nowstarted working for the Scottish Office.He had a 3-week break in Zimbabwe atthe end of May and beginning of Junewhere he found prices extortionate-until he converted them into sterling.The price of diesel and petrol increasedby over 20%, electricity by 15% andmaize meal was forecast to increase by90%. Many suburbs in Harare ran out

The Broadway Braai held on Saturday28th August 1999, which unfortunately isalmost certainly the last, was supported byover 100 members, families and friends.The weather was beautiful, the fire well lit,the conversation flowed as did thelibations. A magnificent raffle was ablyconducted by Allen Lucas. The thanks ofall those who have attended over the last20 (or 18) years, were extended by ourChairman to Dick Ray, Allen Lucas and alltheir helpers over the years, with dueappreciation to the Board of Group 4. Dickresponded with thanks to all attenders.

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of water for a few days. Telephoneskeep breaking down. Cost of servantsin Harare is $800 per month. (It's allrelative Roy, MLL)Keith BLACK 6800 brings news fromBedfordshire. Keith advises that 7015Roger BARNARD retired from the po-lice in May, and that Keith himself willretire on 22nd November. Although hehas no plans to move from the area, hewill have to vacate his police house.He and Sharlie plan a Millennium holi-day after the New Year has settled,which will be to Benoni and Durban.

Spike WERNER 6344 has receivedenough support to manufacture hisBSAP Ring. It is magnificent! I havea colour copy of the artwork if anyoneis interested and single orders may beaccepted with a 6-8 week deliveryservice. Those of you on the Internetcan view it for yourselves on pagehttp: //home. att. net/-bsap

Peter KFYES in Japan, advises that Ian(Taff) JONES 7436 is in insurance inBulawayo and in his spare time, runsthe Matabeleland Branch of the IPA.He keeps in contact with senior officersof the ZRP and comments that verylittle has changed since the days of theBSAP. The administration and post-ings seem to be much the same. Taffalso wrote of (4684?) Tommy TOM-I INSON of the Golden Lion fame thathe is now fully retired, in good healthand whose hobby is bowls, apart fromraising his elbow. His daughter runs ahealth club in Bulawayo. Taff alsomentioned 6651 Larry FARREN, theMzilikazi prize fighter, is in publishingat Alfa (Pvt. )Ltd. , in Bulawayo, dealingwith calendars, dairies, business giftsand the like. (Email address availableMLL)

Mike HORNER 6125 seems to havebeen very busy working 12 hour shiftsreceiving imported grapes fromMexico, at his employment in theSouth-east corner of England but hehas been able to purchase a home ofhis own. (See Changes of Address)

Eugene ALLISON 3362 is sorting outhis attic and has located some old Out-posts which he is offering to members.They include 1970 - July, 1971-March, 1972 August, 1980 - March;April, June &, December. Interestedparties should contact the Hon Secplease.There was quite a response to the Lot-tery item involving Don & Nalda RUS-SELL in Portimao In the first sixmonth period of their 1st syndicatethey had one sizeable win and severalsmaller prizes. In all they collectivelywon just over f75,000 which realisedf. 1,500 to each member of thesyndicate! Just contact Don - withyour cheque - for details. Recent visi-tors to the Rochamar include 4915Mike GROOMBRIDGE and 5322 Stu-art RODDA. Sadly the latter camewhen they were closed. Remember thePortuguese siesta time? Well, Dononly opens at 7.pm!Bruce ALLEN 6743 has suffered ashock to the system. He is doing agovernment sponsored course on com-puters and administration. For some-one who in his own words "thought thetelephone was the real cutting edge intoman's advance into electronicadventurism, " this course proves a littledifficult. Hopefully it will lead to em-ployment in due course, but that couldbe another shock to the system! On amore serious note Bruce recently un-derwent a series of electric shocks to

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encourage his heart to continue topump in step with the rest of his body.All went well. Look after yourselfBruce and remember - take life easy!Sid 4843 and Vera STRICKLAND vis-ited their daughter during early Juneand whilst in the Cirencester area theyvisited Weston Super Mare and sawMargaret, wife of the late GuySTORRY (5125) as well as 4721 Dick& Jean SHAWYER.Hywel PARRY-JONES 6609 hasmoved to pastures new within his job.He is now investigating Housing Ben-efit Fraud and Council Tax Fraud forhis local council.Dick HAMLEY 5567 may be enjoyingretirement but he is finding it frustrat-ing no longer having certain facilitiesavailable. Fortunately other membersof his committee are filling some of thegaps, albeit not to Dick's professional"Staff" standard.

Doug HUBBARD 9137 has made con-tact from Papua New Guinea where heis self-employed and under contract todo a feasibility study on mineraldevelopment. He has already com-pleted one phase and obtained a mininglicence, so things are looking rosy.Having made contact he is now intouch with 5662 Barry HENSON andhad a brief meet with 6511 JulianTWINE and hopes to meet with 8515Martin POWIS in the future. My nextemail was from Barry HENSON con-firming the contact with Doug. Barryis still with the UN there and hopes torenew his contract with them inNovember. Barry's main recreation isscuba diving. He hopes to win themain raffle prize but previously theOutpost has arrived too late to enter.

4+0otalSg +&qe

Head Office:243-245 Kennington LaneLondon SE11 5QUTel: 0171 582 6975Fax: 0171 S20 0241

Basin gstoke:The New CottageWest Ham Lane

BasingstokeHampshire RG22 6PP

Tel: 01256 346 446Fax: 01256 346 556

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Harry McKinley P/r 25555 and hiswife met with Mike Leach for acliibule at a klarrogate hostelry, whenHarry was visiting from Gauteng. Hebought greetings from all in Transvaal.Will CORNELL 6338 sat back on theevening of the AGM and dropped me aline, sad that he was not with us all inperson, but being with us in spirit. Inmid June, Will met 4663 John SAV-AGE at the airport. John was passingthrough from Ncw Zealand on his wayto Seattle. Will managed to take himfor a drive and they had snacks atStarbucks, overlooking the Pacificocean. The chat was of old comrades,including Sam Williams, HamishHarvey, Brian Chalk, Mike Edden,Dave Hallward, amongst many others.Will's vivid memory of Sam was hisgentlemanly approach to the handlingof an abusive drunk, when D/I in thecharge office. If you imagine DaveSankey's method, Sam's was 180 de-grees removed. Will also advises that6028 Dave ARNOLD continues tomaintain his health. Stay with it Dave.

Sheila 3790, widow of Trevor BEVANwas present at the Service of Com-memoration and Thanksgiving to markthe end of Her Majesty's OverseasCivil Service held at Westminster Ab-bey on 25th May 1999. A congregationof 2,300 headed by Her Majesty theQueen afterwards mingled at Marlbor-ough House (some went to LancasterHouse and some to St. James Palace)which Sheila describes as a fitting fi-nale to mark the end of a proud histori-cal era. Sheila also sent in an extractfrom The Burning Coast, a book writ-ten by John DOODY, former Palestineand later detached to the Eritrea I'olicewhich is where he was reunited with

several BSAP colleagues who were de-tached for duty there during the war.Sheila's late husband Trevor was partof that contingent and is mentioned inChapters 16, 17 and 18 of that book.Lionel "Lummy" LUMHOLTZ 3383popped into London from Cumbria, atthe beginning of July, and took theopportunity to drop in on 2906 PercyBARNES. Percy finds it difficult toget into functions these days, butLummy reports that Percy and his wifeDorothy "Doll" were in great form.The talk was naturally of the old daysas they were both in CID and Lummyserved under Percy at one time. Nowin their nineties, Percy and Doll wishedto be remembered to all. (This shouldbe an example to our younger memberswho should note that a visit of thisnature is most rewarding to all parties!- MLL)Cliff ROGERS 4735 had a visit fromsquad mate 4731 Roy HOLLIS whowas in the UK in July on a visit fromQueensland.

Nigel LEAKEY 8115 has disposed ofhis investigation agency to his formerwife and now gets his income frombeing a sailing instructor.

Clive NEWTON 5887 has moved toGreat Stukeley in Cambridgeshire. InJuly he met 6616 Don and MaryannKeens who were on holiday from Aus-tralia and keeps in touch with 5758Barrie and Molly MacKay in nearbyKettering.

Terry LOOKER 4941 retired in July.He is now on the email system andsays he will have to look for some parttime occupation to enhance themonthly income as time goes by. "But,for the moment, I am enjoying the

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remainder of summer at home. On theold comrade's front, I visited Glen Mc-Donald in May and also called onDickie and Yvonne Cox at their homein Aylmer. Dickie and Yvonne willspend the day with Audrey and me atour place on August 21". We still havepretty frequent contact with Bev andJB Jaboor, who now live in Ohio. Itwas good to see them both at my retire-ment party when they pitched up withBert and Sue Barrett. Bert is a vet whohas a business in Toronto but formerlypractised in Highlands, Salisbury.Peter Keyes 7419 in Tokyo„sent anemail to Brian Gibbs while experienc-ing a typhoon. "It started early thenight before and we have had bucketsof rain. I rather enjoy all the splashand patter on my window frames. Al-though we have air cons in each room,I much prefer fans and so, two yearsback, I installed ceiling fans in most ofthe rooms. A cream one in the kitchen,a white one in the bedroom and onewith polished wooden blades for mystudy which is where it is twirling nowwith good colonial panache. The origi-nal blades were not so nice and so I cutsome in good wood with beautifulgrain which I stained and highly pol-ished ready for inspection! Tiffin to-day was a great Chinese chicken andmedicinal herb soup which I made to-gether with goodies from the SpiceIslands. One of the things we do whenwe go on our hols is to buy up the localsoups and curry mixes. You can getsome fantastic one in Indonesia thatyou can't buy elsewhere and they givea truly local taste. Earlier in the weekwe enjoyed a number of fine coconutcurries. We will be off on holidaysoon to Singapore and then to New

Zealand again. In Wellington I intendto look up P/0 Henry Resink and laterfile a report together with photos docu-menting his present wear and tear.Then it's off to Bali for a couple ofweeks. Singapore used to be expensivefor hotels, but a check on the Netshows them to be very reasonable now- possibly due to the Asian crisis. Inever tire of Bali. I think it is a verymagical place and I'm in the mood forgreat tropical nights, swaying palmsand great night skies ablaze with stars. "

GATOOMA CRICKET TEAMYour Hon Sec is getting older. I

cannot recall who sent in thephotograph with the question fromTony CLARKE, the former Rhodesianmagistrate. Several people took thetrouble to let me have some details, but5639 Mike HOGGARTH in Kendalactually had the photograph, which wasreprinted into the BSAP Outpost at thetime where the team was described as"the scourge of all local sides". Theback row, from left to right; P/r DaveMcMurray (Vehicle Inspector), S/oMike Hoggarth, Insp (T) MannyParsons, S/o Mike Cunnison, DSOAndy Bullmore and S/o Tony Grice.The front row: P/r John Shelton(Mining Commissioner), Tony Clarke(Sen. Magistrate), S/o (T) SidWetherall, P/o Ed Holloway - andA. Debourbon (Public Prosecutor). AsTony Clarke was on transfer toChiredzi, the comment was that it washoped that the replacement Magistratedid not mind batting at No. 4. Asecond photo was subsequentlypublished which included Insp. JimGILBERT and P/r Maxwell (?) whoworked at the local hospital.

Page l3

HOW IT WAS THAT I CAME TOMEET HER MAJESTY THE

QUEEN MOTHERBy No. 3385

Surely the 1950s were Rhodesia's mosteventful years. With post war prob-lems over and thc Central African Fed-eration in place, immigrants flocked in,suburbs mushroomed and the miracleof tar macadam replaced the faithfulold strip roads. Italian engineers ar-rived to build the gigantic Kariba Damas John Davidson and I were the firstto set up a CID post near the wall.

Our venerable Salisbury Baker AvenuePolice Station having outlived itsusefulness, was replaced by a palatialstructure in Railway Avenue, occupiedwith indecent haste because the FederalGovernment had its eye on it. It wasindescribable luxury after Baker Av-enue's squalor where four of us hadshared one office.Early in 1953, news of the forthcomingRoyal Tour filtered through and mostof us in thc BSAP from the Commis-sinner downwards, became involved.Four of us in the CID became the"close security unit". We even hadspecially tailored jackets to conceal thebulge of our revolvers under our leftarmpits. Two senior Metropolitan CIDinspectors arrived to check out allarrangements. What excitement!

Salisbury's new Kentucky InternationalAirport opened just in time for thearrival of our Royal visitors at noon on1st July. Enormous crowds of all racesgathered in glorious Rhodesian sun-shine to greet our Royal visitors, clap-ping and cheering as the QueenMother, as gracious as ever and Prin-

cess Margaret looking lovely but just alittle sad, emerged at the steps of theComet airliner. Later in the tour, I wasprivileged once to have eye contactwith Princess Margaret and to this day,I remember well, the gorgeous deepalmost velvety blue of her eyes.The Tour commenced a day or twofrom Salisbury's Government Housewhen the parties embarked in twotrains, the white Royal Train for theRoyal Household followed by our "pi-lot train" with all security personnel,tour managers and a large, internationalcontingent of press folk. Havingmoaned the first morning on boardabout our cold compartments, I remem-ber how impressed we were when theQueen Mother hearing of our plight,instructed that more blankets should beissued.

Bulawayo was our erst port of call andwonderful it was with a great multitudeof people greeting the Royal party atthe Station before we moved across toGovernment House and later to theRhodes Centenary Exhibition, the larg-est ever in Rhodesia's history.

But here I must draw a line againstevents and ask you to accompany medown memory lane to the Exhibition'slarge new theatre for the gala perform-ance by the London Halle Orchestraunder its founder conductor, Sir JohnBarbirolli. And what a glitteringevening it proved to be!Thousands were in the audience. La-dies in beautifully low-cut creationsamid diamonds and tiaras with bemed-alled gentlemen in dark tail suits andarmy officers in coloured uniforms.Thunderous applause greeted the gra-cious arrival of the Queen Mother and

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Princess Margaret both gloriouslydressed, escorted by our Governor thetall and distinguished looking Sir JohnKennedy and Lady Kennedy. Silencereigned throughout as formal introduc-tions went on after which Sir Barbirollitook his place on the rostrum and theconcert started. I don't remember whatthe programme was but one of themain items was the new compositionby Eric Coats called the RhodesianMarch. We, the close security chaps,were inconspicuously seated strategi-cally in case of an unscheduled event,which of course didn't happen as theevening was a brilliant success story.But after the final encore my positionwas at the Royal party's exit doorwhere the most embarrassing momentof my life took place. For as the Royalparty and all attendants headed for theexit door where I was standing, theQueen Mother happened to see me andseemingly took me to be a member ofthe orchestra. She stopped in hertracks, approached me with a big smileto thank me most graciously for whatshe said was a most wonderful per-formance saying how much she andeveryone had enjoyed it: No incidentlike this was covered in my instructionsand I was covered with embarrassment,froze in my tracks and at first, wastotally speechless. Then I managed amuttered "Thank you, Madam" and arather clumsy bow from the waist amidnods and smiles from the others in theRoyal following.Needless to say the "Queen Mother andme" incident became the subject ofmuch envious ribaldry and leg-pulling,but at least I wasn't chucked off thetour which was a very special one-offincident of my police career.

Her Majesty The Queen Mother andPrincess Margaret with the Governor,Sir John Kennedy In RhodesiaJuly I953

INCOME TAXPlease remember that as formerRhodesians, here in the UK, ingeneral circumstances you do nothave to pay tax on your RhodesianIncome, being exempt by the DoubleTaxation legislation. If you havebeen paying, this tax can bereclaimed, but only for the last sixyears! One of our members recentlyreceived such a reclaim and passesthis information on to others. (I' llwager that the last six years and therates of exchange, will have paid for apint of beer! MLL) Should you haveany queries contact our Hon Sec.

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ATHERVLHEK

Southern CountiesThe Southern Counties gathering washeld on Sunday 27th June at the HollistArms, Lodsworth in West Sussex.Twenty seven members were piped into dine to the strains of Kum-a-Kye.The Following members and theirguests attended: 6125 Mike & RoxanneHORNER, 8338 Mal & RozTHURMAN, Spr 35336 Bernard &Fran TERRY, 6308 Dan & AlomaHUGHES, 4158 Tim WEIMER, 4809John TURK, 5436 Dave CHAMPION,Guest DCI John JONES ex HantsConstabulary, 4996 John & BettyNEALE, 5024 John & Vi BISHOP,7085 Fred & Angela HUBBARD, 7070John LANGTON, 3849 PaddyPOWELL, Associate Dave BRAND,6609 Hywell & Jan PARRY-JONES,4840 Michael PURSLOW, 6050 Brian& Adrienne GIBBS.

who decided that life in Jhb wasbecoming too dangerous for comfort soreturned to the UK. Present were:4041 Allen Day, (4327) RonaJohnston, 4843 Sid Strickland andVera, 4933 Rod Wilson, 4572 JoeMercer, 5479 Mike Leach and Jan,7207 Arnold Woolley and Pr 203679Paula Woo 1icy.""Despite the gloomy predictions of theweather forecasters, the sun shone onthe righteous twelve members andwives who attended our summergathering in June, " writes Allen Day."A most welcome member was 7192Steve Robins on leave from HongKong where he is Chief Superintendentin the Administration branch of thePolice Force. He has purchased ahouse near Southport, Lancashirewhere he intends to retire in six months

time. He hopes to attend our functionsat Galgate from March 2000 onwards.Whilst in Depot, he rode the samehorse that Frank Dearden had riddenduring his recruit training! Frank isnow undertaking youth training at anOutdoor Centre near Ulverston - notmany retired policemen can do that-and he looks remarkably fit as a result.Present were: 4041 Allen Day, 4572Joe Mercer, 4933 Rod Wilson andHarry Marshall (ex City of LiverpoolConstabulary), (4327) Rona Johnston,5479 Mike Leach and Jan, 7084 FrankDearden and Margaret, 7192 SteveRobins CPM, Pr28844 Mick Colemanand Terry. "LondonSeen in Trenchard House in April: Pe-ter Phillips, John Balchin, CliffRogers, Jim Cave, Jack Brown and

Mike Eddon. In May there was JohnBalchin, Peter Phillips, Cliff Rogers,Bert Cubitt and Hugh Phillips fromZimbabwe. In June I have no recordand for July Trenchard was closed. InAugust we restarted in Victory Serv-ices Club, downstairs bar commencing5.30pm and the first members to par-ticipate included: Alan Toms, SimonLovett, Liz Phillips (guest) TonyGranger, Colin Bewes, Brian Gibbs,John Vye, Peter Butler and Jim Hazlett.Don't forget the 1st Tuesday's at-theVictory Services Club, London.

A GOLDEN WEDDINGRon and Nan WARREN celebratedtheir Golden Wedding Anniversary atthe Police Chapel on Saturday August7th 1999.Our Congratulations.

The Southern Counties Gathering at the Hollist Arms, Lodsworth, 8'est Sussex on the 27th June 1999

NorthwestBeautiful spring weather attracted agathering of old comrades, wives andguests to the New inn, Galgate inMarch. Allen Day reports that, "Oneabsentee was 4716 Larry King whotravelled all the way from North Waleson the Friday but was unable to find asuitable B& B nearby so returned homeand we missed his company. With mychange of address, he was unable tophone me. My new home is only 600yards away from my old address whichhas been taken over by my daughterPenny and hcr husband John Burton

Page 16Page 17

EPITAPH TO COURAGE

Extract from "Stand to your lJorses "'

by Stanley Edwards 3749

Every district station of the BSA policehad an "Isolated Graves" book, arecord of the graves of those who hadbeen buried in the bush. At least once ayear, a patrol would visit the grave andclear it of the worst of encroachingbush. Some graves had a simple ironcross but most were marked by rockpiled to protect the dead from wildbeasts.

Chibi station has records not only ofthe death of the German missionarywho opened the station in 1892 but ofhis two children who predeceased him,and of at least one of his colleagues.The mission in this highly malarial re-gion was abandoned. Their Berlin Mis-sion at Gutu closed after the death ofthe Rev. Meister and his wife after onlyone year. There are numerous graves ofother Gertnan missionaries in the Gutuarea, sad monuments to those whocame to spread the word of God and tobring civilisation and minister to thewell-being of primitive people. Therecords at Gokwe told the tale of dan-gers in the wild Sebungwe area bor-dered by the Zambezi river. Threegraves at the first native commission-er's camp on the Lubu river have asingle headstone: "In memory of JamesHenry Lester, DSM, Assistant NativeCommissioner of this district, who wasaccidentally shot at Sebungwe on 23rdJanuary 1899, also of George CrawfordHayes Hancock, Trooper, British SouthAfrica Police, who was killed by a lionat Sebungwe on 22nd January 1899 on

22"" January 1899."Lester and Hancock were on patrolwhen the horses grew restive at night.Hancock went to investigate and wasfatally mauled by a lion. The nextmorning, Lester set out with the NativeDepartment messengers and Africanpolice and when the lion broke covertheir volley of shots struck Lester whowas leading. A third grave is noted inpolice records: - "Trooper A. Sharp,killed by leopard, actual date unknown,but about 1898".The native department station wasmoved from Lubu to Chete about 1899when the native commissioner wasGielgud, an uncle of Sir John, and afew years later to Kariangwe wherethere are two graves - of Vere Camp-bell who died of blackwater fever onChristmas Day 1910, and Rautenbach„a hunter who failed to return from ahunting trip and Campbell's searchparty found him, killed by a rhinoceros.The two graves, side by side, are in aclearing marked by piles of stones.In 1911 a party of four were in theBumi river area on a prospecting trip.All went down with blackwater. Twodied and were buried by their compan-ions who were rescued in time. Thetwo graves are marked.

Trooper Butler on patrol, died of dys-entery and his grave is recorded, as isthat of Keats Brown who died in 1927and was buried on an island in theZambezi on which he decided to settleand crossed the Rubicon by burning theboat which a gang of Africans hadtowed through the Zambezi Gorge."Wiri" Edwards, one of the first nativeCommissioners, found a young policetrooper dying of fever on the Lundi

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River in the southern Chibi area. Heburied him and put up a rough crossmarked "Somebody's Boy".Many of the dead were buried in somesmall outpost - a police camp, a nativedepartment station, a small working, atsetse fly ranger's camp - which closeddown or wasmoved, leavingthe graves in thebush, a monu-ment to the ster-ling characters

lated Graves" register, but tended andcared for by relatives. They recalled themost serious threat of civil disturbancesince the Mashonaland rebellion nearlythirty years earlier.

Mr. M. van Rensburg eked out a frugalliving from his farm Geluk in the bush

south of Beatrice.The family, his wifeand five smallchildren, had al-ready been struckby disaster when

who opened upthese wild places.

three small childrenhad found a jar ofhoney, laced withstrychnine forjackal poisoning.Three became vio-lentl ill - two were

The headstones inthe little grave-yards of the vil-

saved but one diedstory of those in agony.who settled to make a home or whose The same month, September 1924, vanduties in the police and native affairs Rensburg before leaving for hisled to their death from disease or monthly wagon trek to Salisburymisadventure. At Inyanga, next to the threatened to withhold the wages ofgraves of several police troopers who Jack Chakawa, his herd boy if a lostdied of malaria is one of a child, the cow were not found. For several daysgrandson of Lord Baden Powell whose Chakawa brooded over this threat thenson served first in the British South put all his meagre possessions into aAfrica Police and, later, Native Affairs, hut and burnt it to the ground.in which department he was serv&ng at Chakawa, himself a child, was the Af-Mrewa when I was at Mtoko. rican friend of the three van RensburgAt Fort Tuli, where the pioneer column sons - 10, 7 and 5 years old.made its first camP on the south side of Mrs van Rensburg, working in herthe river, are eleven unmarked little kitchen heard the children screaming asrocky mounds. On the north side, on in play then detected some unusualthe hillock are two more with a single note. She ran out to see Chakawa strik-rusty plate roughly punch-marked» ing with an axe. She took her hus-memory unknown". band's rifle and Chakawa, seeing her,On the farm Geluk in the Beatrice po- threw down the axe and ran off.lice section were three pathetic little That evening, a motorist on the Salis-graves, recorded in the station's "Iso- bury road stopped to help the demented

Page 19

mother and took her to the policecamp. A patrol located van Rensburgat his overnight camp and the partywent to Geluk. There they found thedaughter with the blood-stained bodiesof her three brothers. They had beenchopped with the toy axe whichChakawa had made as a gift for thewhite boys.When the news broke the next day,Salisbury came to a virtual standstill.Police had thrown a fifty mile cordonround the area to contain the murderer,manned by police and nativedepartment. An unarmed messenger ofthe native affairs department foundChakawa some fifty miles from thefarm in an advanced state of shock andincoherent. When they heard of thecapture, a party of farmers formed tohelp in the search, decided to ambushthe police party on their way to Salis-bury and lynch the murderer. Police,having heard the threats, took a circui-tous route and avoided the gang.

A lynch committee was formed inSalisbury and an attack was made onthe gaol when the head warder refusedto hand over the prisoner. A batteringram was set up against the main gatesof the prison but a strong force ofpolice deflected the ram. A dangeroussituation then loomed when a well-known flashy woman of the towndrove to the gates with cans of petrolinciting the crowd to ignite it and burndown the gates. As the mob rushed thegates, armed police reinforcements ar-rived from Depot and judging the seri-ousness of the situation, the command-ing officer ordered "Fix Bayonets!"and lined the gate. A police trooperwas knocked down and the assailantwas bayoneted in the shoulder. Police

gained control and dispersed the mob.

Asked if he had anything to say beforesentence, Chakawa said, "The eldestboy threw the axe at me. The haftstruck my foot. Then I got very sor-rowful and I stood looking at him.And I thought, why should my play-mate do this to me? And I began tocry. And then I did what I did. "On a more cheerful note, my first in-spection of Gokwe found InspectorBulley running the outfit. The chargeoffice still occupied the originalthatched hut built to give the corporal atable and chair with some over-crowd-ing when one of the troopers returnedfrom a month-long foot patrol. Withthe bulky Inspector Bulley assisted byhis buxom wife as a WAP, there wassome difficulty in moving around theradio and other modern equipment. An-other small diversion on the morning ofmy arrival was some consternation onthe station when the native commis-sioner had arrived at his office to find aheap of steaming elephant dung on theverandah. There was always somethingin the wind with the irrepressible Bul-ley around.

On a later visit with Elrich Dawson,Provincial District Commissioner, wecalled on the bachelor agricultural of-ficer on the Sessami river some 70miles beyond Gokwe. At tea at hisquarters we found the room packedwith every known component of adrummer-kit - drums, triangles,cymbals, castanets, timpani, tubularbells, gongs - the whole range ofknown percussion instruments onwhich he would perform in accompani-ment to radio or gramophone to passaway lonely evenings.

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CentralFrom Hugh Phillips' July Newsletterwe have culled the most pertinent andup-to-date juicy bits for your informa-tion and entertainment. "My own travelsin England and Wales (I decidedagainst Ireland because their English isso poor!) started off with a pleasant butpoorly attended first Tuesday atTrenchard House. After London we re-ally started travelling! Staying atStratford-upon-Avon put us only a fewmiles from Frank and Phil Maguire atKenilworth where they have a lovelyhome, served a delicious lunch and Irealised how useful it is to have apartner who can do building, joinery,electrics and plumbing. (I wanted tosend my wife to the Polytechnic, butshe'd have none of it!). Our next visitwas to two wonderfully hospitable peo-ple who run their own, very charmingand very efficient hotel- Brian 5537and Diana Litton in Llanberis, NorthWales. Comfortable, homely and won-derfully placed for the climbing ofSnowdon as well as tours to Caernar-fon and Conwy.I arrived at 5075 Dick Ray's home inthe Wye Valley to find Jenny clearingup preparatory to their taking the cara-van to France the following day. Dickwas on his way home from Broadwayand as we couldn't stay on, I chatted tohim on his cellphone.The Bath Festival was our next stopand there we were joined by PhilipCarter 5447, who works, at present, ina garden nursery in Flitwick, nearLuton, but is soon to stay in Leeds and

there complete the examinations to be-come a music teacher.

A day in Weston-Super-Mare saw usspend a pleasant couple of hours withGerry Moore 5279 (ex-Det. ChiefInsp. ) who is looking very fit and thor-oughly enjoys his retirement. My nextvisit was to Sir John Pestell 3815, inhis lovely rural retreat a few milesfrom Sherborne, in Somerset. John andBetty are in pretty good health consid-ering the advances of Father Time.Ted Cutfield 4753 at Westbury-sub-Mendip, a few miles from Wells,wasn't in. I left a message in the postbox and he phoned later that day. Tedis still doing his regular visit routine inthe West to, I think, Mobil pensioners,and his wife, Ruth, is a guide at WellsCathedral. It had to be the epitome ofirony that after missing him at hishome, we went on to Wells and touredthe cathedral but without meetingRuth!

Lunch with Jim 6580 and Joyce 0'-Toole had to be one of the high spotsof our holiday. These two now live in awonderful apartment looking downover the Woolacombe beach in NorthDevon. When I commented on theview over the cliff and to the Atlanticand on the peacefulness of the sea onthat day, Jim, with his usual relaxedhumour commented "Well, we' re pro-tected by that land mass you can't quitesee, the United States!"Our next stop was on the edge of Dart-moor in Moretonhampstead where welooked up Wendy Ellis and chattedabout people we had known throughthe Depot Camp I-Iospital. "Pop" wasaway teaching people how to drive fireengines and ambulances down incred-ibly narrow Devon lanes but at least,

Page 21

now, he has all his Advanced DrivingCertificates (courtesy of lan Hayes) toprove that whatever happens, it has tobe the pupil's fault. '

Our final call was to Dennis Tullett4944, and Betty in Exmouth. A morerotund and prosperous looking manthan the one I remember forty plusyears ago but well settled and clearlyhappy.It was a wonderful and memorableholiday; what came through loud andclear was the efficiency and cleanlinessof the country; the courtesy of shopfolk and drivers, and the overall im-pression of good order.Natal's new chairman is Fred Masonwho has no time for people who saywe have a limited life because he, andhis committee, want to make sure thatthe next 20 to 30 years are active,interesting and fulfilling for members,AND —he wants more of them. TheBranch has adopted a MissionStatement: "To be a dynamic world-wide Association of ex-BSA Policemembers, Reservists and Associatesthat aim to provide for their social,intellectual, financial and welfare needsand that of their colleagues andfamilies. "

First out of my Mailbag is a letter fromDavid Aitken 6955, who, mainly forthe sake of his children's education, isreturning to the home village of DavidCoulthard. David mentions the cost ofschooling his two children at HeritageSchool here in Harare as $13110a termEACH, plus uniforms. For the edifica-tion of the UK Branch, David's addressappears to read 145 Linthorpe ArdenRoad, Twnholm(?), Kirkcudbright, D664PB, Scotland.

"Bomber" Davidson writes to say thathe' ll be in Britain until 3rd Octoberwith the Blind Bowlers Associationwith which he's been involved for 37years. kie'll be getting round the coun-try quite a bit and hopes to look upTim Weimer and, as he puts it, "sharehis elevation and meet over a drink".Bomber comments sadly that PaddyRuttle is in a bad state with Altzheim-ers and is now in a frail care centrenear Scottburgh, Natal, the address be-ing Box 292 and the area code 4180.John van Zyl 6724/9210 has come upwith one of those bits of history thatpeople just love! He, his father and hisgrandfather have all been members ofthe BSAP. His father was 2799, joinedin 1926 and left by "purchase" in 1927when his father died, whilst the grand-father was number 325 and joined in1890 ('F' Troop), discharged in 1891from 'A' Troop, served in the VictoriaColumn (1893) and the Grey Scouts(1896).The field is now open!Richard Seward dropped me a lineshortly after the death of his father atthe age of 99 and 5 months. "H.G" ashe was always known had been onpension, or more accurately pittance,for 51 years thus totally confoundingthe actuarists. He undertook a recruit-ing drive in 1945/46 and it was entirelydue to his efforts that we enjoyed the"Alcantara Mob" and the huge intakesthat came here after World War II. Hehad a distinguished career, was univer-sally respected and sincere condolencesare offered to his family who havecarried on in the "old man's tradition".

H. G" spent much of his life inBulawayo, in fact he retired from there,somewhat prematurely at the age of 48in 1948, so it's entirely appropriate to

Page 22

move on to the death of another old-timer, Colonel Graham Rogers whowas for many years resident in theBulawayo Club. Ken Macdonald writesthat the funeral was well-attended byKen Barry (who conducted theservice), Jackie Wordsworth, BillCastle-Ward, Ted Kirby, Barry Dodd,Tony (Chiefy) Cox, John McManmon,John Robertson, Tommy Tomlinson,Alee Craigie, Peter South, George Kay,Kay Hawkins (widow of DonHawkins) and, of course Ken himself.I-Ie continues, "Graham was in his 96thyear when he died and had been caredfor in his last days by his only sonTony and his daughter in law whosemother was Belle Potterton - wellknown in Fort Victoria days when sheworked at the Magistrates' Courts andserved in the Police Reserve. Ken men-tions a visit from John Davey who is inthe tourism business in Maun, Bot-swana and is hoping to meet DaveSloman on a forthcoming visit.Still in Bulawayo, a short note fromRay Herran encloses an item of histori-cal interest he received from PaddyVickery. It's a 1947 Christmas cardwith a photograph of that year's RoyalEscort. I shall pass it to Alan Rich forinclusion in the Depot Museumexhibits.

Robin Bull 5204, writing fromMasvingo remembers Larry Tuke asliving in the Old Age Cottages atRuwa. (We asked for news of him inour Spring Issue) On behalf of his wife,Diane, Robin asks if anyone knows thewhereabouts of Geof Ramsden 5549,who completed three and returned toYorkshire some thirty five years ago.Now there's a challenge for the"agency" in Harrogate!

Ken Stanford-Smith fresh back from aholiday in Australia (and a hernia op-eration in Harare), sent some details ofhis stay in Western Australia."We had a pleasant evening with Henry4655 and Maureen Wright at their win-ery which has now been sold, thoughMaureen is to take a PhD in winemaking, its history and so on. MetChristopher Adams after a break offorty nine years. He was in Squad" 2 of1950 and now works in Freemantle.Attended a Rhodesian Associationmeeting and met Charles Cole-Bowen,Heather Mulroney whose father W FSutherland was BSAP, and FredaCommerford, wife of Bernard 8690,BSAP Bulawayo. Also Roy Killick,brother of Rex, and Bunty Ludlow,researching his family history. At least20 members were required for theAnzac Day Parade. "Try thecemetery. " "No, they have to bemobile, " was the rejoinder. HenryWright would like to know the wherea-bouts of Jack Shaughnessy".From Alan Rich comes the news thatFred Mason was recently in PapuaNew Guinea and met Julian Twine6511, thin as a rake, a fitness fanaticand shortly due to retire; also BarryHenson 5662 who is UN Security Ad-visor for the area. Barry sports a longsilver ponytail and an earstud whichshould see him all right in Europewhen he retires next year.Michael Fisher PR 17777 and A303has noted mention of A220 TonyBrown in one of my newsletters. Tonyis something in the Senior Citizens'Club.Dick Hamley thanks me for my Christ-mas letter - replacing a Christmas card

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- and is sending via Ken SS somematerial that may be suitable for theHistory and which originates fromHenry Wright. Dick's own The Regi-ment - third edition, updated will beready soon and Dick is thinking of aSouth African marketing drive to coin-cide with a December visit.Mike Harvey 6121, has dropped me aline from Highlands to say that on arecent trip south he became involvedwith the Border Branch and attendedtheir AGM, chaired by Mike Lindley5312. Twenty one members werepresent and 8 sent their apologies.Those attending were Ginger Branfield4091, Jock Harvey 4617, Owen White-side 5435, Rob Anderson 5835, PeterBegg 5875, Dudley McLachlan 6079,Keith Samler 6657, Gerald Crosbie6769, Rod Shelley 7661, Piers Winter8177, Rob Williams 8186, GrahamMcCleland 8577, Bruce Beukman8705, Mike Snell 8772, Gordon Camp-bell 8802, Ed Pieret 8954, JohnPomfret 12884, Simon Blanchard18605, Pauline Van Rooyen WP169/242 and Tony Eldridge 15378. Thelatter has just had published a book onhis experiences with offensive under-water vehicles during World War IIand with PATU in Rhodesia.

Fred Smith 3137, dropped me a linefrom Greenways, Box 204, Chegutu,suggesting that he may be the oldestliving member. Fred joined in Novem-ber 1929 and served for 10 years. Anycompetition out there?

Andy Field 8646 - my provider (!)-advises that he now has 70 membersand is looking for more.

Five sets of Association/BSAP cufflinks which belonged to the late Bob

Berger are held by Barry Dodd in Bu-lawayo and he's looking forpurchasers. The proceeds will go toMrs Berger. Bob Morrison 4955 was awelcome visitor to the Club a fewweeks ago; Roy Welch made a particu-lar point of extending his stay inHarare to meet Bob, and others presentincluded Al Patterson, Ron Blackmore„Peter Bellingham, Ralph Thompson,Ian Hayes, Brian Darling and PeterBell.

New ZealandWe extend our congratulations to ourKiwi comrades for another very pol-ished and professional Outpost. TheirAGM saw no change in their officebearers. Bill SCHOLLUM continuesin the Chair, a position he has heldsince the branch was formed. Weextend our congratulations to him onhis award of Honorary Life Vice Presi-dent of the Regimental Association bythe Central Committee in Zimbabwe.Sadly Mike LENDREM's conditiondoes not improve, whilst GordonBATT is making slow progress follow-ing the removal of a brain tumour lastyear. All is not gloom - Ian WIN-TERS has recovered from his Quadru-ple by pass operations and is lookinghis old self again. Our thanks to JohnCRISP, the Branch Secretary, for thisupdate.

AustraliaThe Australian Branch is welllaunched. They held a most success-ful Inaugural General Meeting on Feb-ruary 5th. Dick HAMLEY waselected Chairman and Rob GATES as

Page 24

Vice-Chairman, John SEWARD asSecretary, Kerry HOADLEY asTreasurer, Paul GARNETT and LewWHITMORE as Committee Members.One behalf of the UK Branch member-ship we wish you every success.

NatalNigel SEWARD reported that "The Pi-etermaritzburg chaps organised a din-ner event to mark the 99'" birthday ofthe Queen Mum, our Honorary Com-missioner on 4 August. Twenty mem-bers and partners attended and thevenue was The Old Colonial restaurantin Howick, run by the son of BasilSpurling. It was a very well organisedevening which everyone thoroughlyenjoyed. To avoid the long drivehome, we spent the night with Paul andDelphine May (ex CID Sby, Byo andFt Vic) who also attended the dinner. Itwas also a farewell to Steve Stephens(of medals and depot fame!) who isemigrating to Australia. "SPECIAL REPORTThe Natal 1999 Reunion Dinner, aweekend to remember, was held onFriday 20'" August at the Durban'sPoint Yacht Club, reports Fred Mason.It was a very successful evening whichhad the theme of "The Nines"(everyone who was in depot the yearending in a 9). The evening was alsothe 25 Anniversary of the formation ofthe Branch in Natal. The FounderChairman, 4977 Detective Chief In-spector Roy Davies spoke on the for-mation of the Branch 25 years ago.1929 was represented by 3117 ex-De-tective Chief Inspector Albert EdwardPotts, who served from 5.5. 1929

(Recruit Squad 4/1929) to 7.1.51.Ex-Commissioner Syd Bristow at-tended and represented the 1939's withPhil Mingard and Barry Thomas repre-senting the 49's. There was a fairrepresentation from the 59's and 69's(Dick Isemonger spoke on behalf of the59's and Rob Bristow for the 69's)Wp390 ex W/Constable Colepepper(nee Weston) gave a short talk on lifeas a WPO in the BSAP.The meal was a break from the tradi-tional - members had to help them-selves to the Mediterranean Buffet. Itwas a most enjoyable meal, confirmedby the numerous return trips to theserving counter. (I think the recordwas four trips for starters!)The ever youthful 6187 ex-DetectiveInspector John Haswell alias TikiNdhlovu X23765 Tjolotjio rounded offthe evening and once again had hisaudience in fits of laughter.For some the evening continuedthrough to 2am and then reconvened at2pm Saturday at the KingsparkStadium. Over 50 members includingsome wives attended a pre-match braai.At 5pm the party watched the Natal v.Western Province Currie Cup matchand then it was back to braai, moreChibuku with the die hards partying onuntil after midnight. A wonderfulweekend was had by all in the magicprovince of Natal.

CAR HIREEvery now and then, members fromabroad enquire about Car Hire in theUK. Are any of our members in thatline of business? If you can help orif you know a man who can, contactour Hon. Sec.

Page 25

PLUMTREE DAYSTales frown a Palrol Diaryl3y 77/6

Plumtree days, how I enjoyed them.We worked hard, but we sure playedhard as well. Memories that I willalways treasure. Plumtree was the lastbastion, before entering the desolatewilderness of Botswana.

The Police Reserve training day was infull swing out at the Rifle range, a fewmiles outside of Plumtree. Held annu-ally it was eagerly looked forward toby all. It was a day full of shootingcompetitions, learning first aid and ofcourse inevitably, drinking and eating.There was a small club house at therange, and it was here, after a day oftraining all retired for a braai and a fewcold shumba's, a sort of debriefingsession. The day was usually aSaturday, and as most of the townsfolkand farmers were involved, Plumtreewas virtually a ghost town.

Although I was always an eager andregular participant, I could not attendthe event in the year of 1968, as Irecall. Unfortunately I was confined tobed with a bad dose of 'flu. The localGMO. had put me there, after injectingme with some sort of white concoction,which I imagine, was an antibiotic.Well, it had the effect of laying me lowfor the rest of the day.Our Medical officer was certainly acharacter. He was a German and hadapparently served in the Panzer Divi-sion during the last war. After getting afew shumba's under his belt at thePlumtree Hotel bar, he would com-mence singing German Beer keller

songs and start goose-siepping all overthe place. He would occasionally beinvited to our mess for a drink, and ofcourse he drove a left-hand drive VWbeetle. You can imagine him trying tonegotiate the exit to the Police campafter filling up on our beer. On manyoccasions we had to surreptitiouslymake repairs to the gate posts. His VWlooked like a German battle tank.

That particular Saturday evening I wassweating it out under my Kaross,(made of Dassie skins or Rock Hyrax,as they are also known) when all of asudden the Simbi began to clang. TheSimbi was a length of iron railway linedangling from a post, located in thecentre of the lawn adjacent to theCharge Office. It was the job of theduty Constable to strike it when anemergency arose. I sat bolt upright,suddenly back in the land of the living,after going in and out of a sweetsoaked delirium.

I leapt out of bed, from the comfort ofmy faithful Kaross and ran to the ve-randa door of the mess. There standingin the moonlight was Constable Josiahilluminated by the light of the ChargeOffice. He was hitting the Simbi for allthat he was worth, "What's theproblem?" I croaked as loud as I could."Nkosi, the bakery is on fire!" Josiahshouted back, continuing to hammerthe Simbi."All right you can stop that now. Goand get the Sgt. Major and anybodyelse you can find, we will have to goand have a look, " I instructed, and asour local Fireman was also attendingthe training day, I added, "'Radio theMember i/c at the range and tell themto get back as soon as possible. " Afterpulling on some clothing, I reached the

Page 26

only form of transport left at the camp,the Mini Moke, and there assembledwas the Sgt Major, my Batman/cookTicky and two off duty Constables,Ndlela and Muriwa. We collected allthe fire equipment we could find andcomfortably fit into the Mini Moke, ahose pipe, four fire extinguishers and acouple of shovels. I started the vehicleand as the equipment was thrownonboard, it lurched into life in a cloudof dust, everybody desperately jumpinginto the moving Mini Make. We hur-tled out of the Police camp in thedirection of Plumtree town centre, andas we hit the railway crossing, theMoke took off and landed with a me-tallic crunch back onto the road, leav-ing equipment and bodies suspended inmid-air for a brief second.We arrived at the bakery, and it waswell alight As Plumtree was virtuallydeserted, we were the first on thescene. Fortunately the fire was onlyconfined to the bakery itself, and hadnot spread to the office or the buildingsnext door. The main door was notlocked, and it was easily opened. In-side the flames were flickering up thewells and leaping out the windowsabove, where the glass had burst. Irealised that we would not be able toput it out with the equipment that wehad, but only try and contain it andstop it from spreading. A tap was foundfor the hosepipe, and water was nowbeing sprayed onto the flames. Mybatmen and the two constables put theextinguishers to good use. I had tophysically restrain an over enthusiasticbatman from entering the inferno withhis fire extinguisher. As far as I canremember, we were hard at it for aboutforty-five minutes to an hour, before

the cavalry arrived.

The last thing I remember, before col-lapsing back into feverish delirium,was John Banks (our local Fireman)arriving on his red tractor pulling thefire engine. The Member i/c and a fewothers arrived in the Police Landrovers,somewhat disgruntled at having their"debriefing" in the range clubhouse,cut short.

The following morning I awoke, on mybed, wrapped in my Kaross still smell-ing of smoke and in soot-stainedclothing, On the bedside table was abottle of whiskey, a bunch of flowersand a note from Costas Demetrious, theowner of the bakery, thanking us all forour bravery. In the envelope wasmoney and instructions to send my fourassistant firemen to the bergall anddrink all the beer it could buy - aninstruction that was as enthusiasticallycarried out as was the attempt to putout the fire.It was not long before the bakery wasin full production again.

BOOKSYour response to our Book Sale inthe last edition was tremendous andthe generous prices offered knowingit was supporting our Trust, wasfantastic. Here are the next 6 titlesTribes & Kingdoms by JS & APBerg (Large Pictorial), Rhodesia byPaddy Hartdegen (Large Pictorial),Red Dust of Africa by SachaCarnegie (Hard Back), Roberts Birdsof South Africa 1965 Edition (HardBack), The Bundu Book of Birds,Snakes & Insects (Soft Back), BassFishing in Southern Africa (SoftBack).

Page 27

PERAMBULATIONS

Ted 6449 and Ros CRAWFORD spentmost of May in Zimbabwe and RSA."With Z$60 to the pound, we did verywell. We spent a night with an oldfriend at Mazowe. The station itselfwas little changed since being stationedthere from 1974 to 1976. A noticeabledevelopment is the establishment of anumber of sub stations/bases round thearea. The Mtoroshanga mines andRaffingora farming areas are both look-ing prosperous. There has been a hugeincrease in the number of dams onfarms, some really very large indeed.The Raffingora farmers reckon theycan survive a number of drought yearsin the future now. Ros and I had a verypleasant Friday evening at the PoliceClub, which is littlechanged. It was great tomeet old colleagueswhom we had not seenfor 18 plus years - Peterand Irene Enwright, Peterat the age of 74 still infull time employment!Alan Stock - ex editor of Outpost, whoafter leaving the Police in (?)1984 wason the staff of the British High Com-mission in Harare until about 2 yearsago. It was the first time that he hadbeen to the Club for many years. JackBacon also still working. Rod Finni-gan and Peter Bellingham looked afterus well. We met briefly "Flash" Firth,an Asst Comm and one of only, I think,3 whites left in the force. Unfortu-nately Bert Freemantle was unable tobe present as his car was stolen shortlybeforehand. Ticky Woods, who is notvery well, also could not get there.However the beer was good, bar snacks

are still served on a Friday evening andthe bar staff are still as courteous asever! What a difference Bulawayo is toHarare! The friendliness of the localpopulace was amazing. I met, quite bychance, Canon Ken Berry, who served,I think 5 years in the Police, inBulawayo, before joining the StaffCorps and then taking holy orders. Heis a keen member of the IPA in Bula-wayo who have excellent relations withthe ZRP in Bulawayo and are permittedto hold their monthly meetings in theMatabeleland Officers Mess. Membersof the IPA were apparently made hon-orary members of the mess, and are allincluded in the monthly mess draw. Wehad a magnificent drive to Masvingoand Lake Kyle, which looked superb,almost full and was expected to spillfor the first time in 25 years. The

police holiday cottage isstill there, and appeared tobe well kept. We usedSAA exclusively. Theirservice has improved outof all recognition, abso-lutely on time and first ratecabin and ground crew

services. We were able to take advan-tage of a comparatively late bookingwhich produced an excellent reductionin fares at f345 inclusive of taxes,saving over f200 on the normalLondon/Durban return fare, and use ofthe SAA African Explorer internalticket. This works on the basis of themore legs you fly the greater the farereduction -Durban/Harare return viaJoburg by SAA at f180 each as against5420 and Durban/Cape Town return atf96 as against f240. The African Ex-plorer is only available direct fromSAA booking offices and not via travel

Page 28

agents. Car hire in both Zim and SouthAfrica was much cheaper doing it lo-cally rather than pre booking and pay-ing in this country. If people still havetheir Zimbabwe Rhodesia ID card, nomatter how old it is, and are able togive a local private address in Zim theyshould be able to get away withouthaving to pay the extortionate touristhotel/accommodation rates. "John TURK 4908 spent 6 weeks of ourSpring in Australia retracing the rootsof his late wife Barbara. A nostalgictrip which he thoroughly enjoyed.John was in Brisbane for ANZAC daywhen the parade took two hours topass. Apparently in Sydney 22,600took part in their parade with 150,000spectators!! The participants whowore historical costumes impressedJohn. Whilst there John took time tovisit 9191 Dave Berry and 8672 PeterCurrie in Cairns where, with the BSAPflag flying proud, they had a braai.Dave HALLWARD 4730 concludedhis year long vacation in South Africa.Leaving Harare he fiew to Cape Townwhere he stayed with 4671 BrianTHORNE (Brian's twin brother Arnoldwas 4670 and served in Signals). Atthe IPA evening at Timour Hall some16 former members partook, including4935 Derek EDWARDS, 5860 DougGRIERSON, 5483 Dave BLACKER,5349 Peter LANE and 6222 RobTRAIL. Doug is now running securityfor Derek in his self-storage business inSomerset West. Derek lives on theErinvale Golf Estate and during 9 holeswith Dave, Derek managed a "swim-ming pool" in One! Dave fitted in acouple of visits to 4920 John MOOREwho stays in good form; he spendsmost of his time on his computer so

any E-mails to "wobbly@mweb. co.za"would cheer him up! QuinnZWICKEY is at Somerset West andalthough he has had a spell of ill healthhe can still be found at the SomersetWest Bowling Club where he is the"barperson". Dave used the new cablecar for his trip up Table Mountain.During the 10 minute trip the floordoes a complete 360 viewing circle!On to Durban where Dave stayed withhis cousin Pat SWEET, ex PATU andTriangle. 5802 Ken WOOD is wellsettled in Gilletts. His only problem isthat his building extensions and houserepairs get in the way of his golf.4947 Roy WELCH still dabbles infraud investigations and 5126 (?) DaveTAYLOR is kept busy at his coffee barin the town centre. Dave also fitted ina dinner with his squad mate 4726Dickie DYER. The last three dayswere in Johannesburg with 4988 BillCROSSAN.Peter KEYES 7419 and Tsuwen had agood trip at the beginning of the yearto Hong Kong, Melbourne andTasmania. He said, "Whilst in HongKong I met up with 7426 Dave OS-BORNE - ex Traffic Bulawayo andnow a Supt. with the Hong KongPolice. He keeps well and mentioned,to my surprise, that the Singapore Po-lice have recently started to recruit Eu-ropean Officers from the Hong Kongpolice 39 years after the former colonygained independence! "Graham 7090 and Gloria PARK spentten days last June staying at the Au-berge Camelia in the French Alps."Hosts 6753 Roger and Sue COOKmade our holiday for us. I had notseen Roger for some 32 years when wewere in the Town Hotel and also at

Page 29

Southerton together. Roger was stillhis hilarious self and with Suzannemade us most welcome. The sights arewonderful and only 20 minutes awaywas Lake Annecy which is the cleanestlake in Europe and so warm to swimin. The atmosphere of the inn is verycosy and is highly recommended ifvisitors are thinking of going anywherenear Geneva. "

The Troops Canteen in Depotby 4269

The Troops Canteen was always full atlunchtime. One could quaff a smallbeer before going to the Mess, but inthe evenings it was always "Bombers".In 1948 Skipper KETTLE ran it andafter him MONTCRIEFF who had athumb chewed off by a leopard. Onecould get a tin of wonderful SouthAfrican Crayfish as a snack to go withthe beer. Next door was the snookerroom with two billiard tables where wewould adjourn with full glasses and afull "Bomber" when time was called.The Sgt's Mess was upstairs but theirbilliard table was downstairs next toour dry canteen. Incidentally, justpassed the mess was a corrugated ironhut which was the reading room andthere was another billiard table there!After soccer and rugby training ses-sions or matches, the canteen would befilled to overflowing and inevitably af-ter a few beers the singsong wouldcommence. This was usually startedby Jimmy Riddle who rarely seems todrink anything and always had a pintjug of Mazoe Orange Crush at hand.His repertoire seemed inexhaustible.Keith Rawson's favourites were"Bread of Heaven" and "Bobbing upand down like this" whilst Clancy Pick-ard was there rendering "Clancy low-

ered the boom". There were otherchoruses too of the bawdier type butall were rendered with great feelingeven if not over tuneful!

SINS TO CONFESS

The day was 1st February 1965. TheUnit was celebrating Ianmass in theSalisbury Police Reserve Bar. Havingbeen presented with a handsome pew-ter pot, 5998 lan Dunbar found him-self driving down Jameson Avenue inhis A40. "Unfortunately, " Ian states, "

Ioverlooked the fact that someone hadbuilt a statue of Cecil Rhodes in themiddle of the road and I suddenlyfound myself high and dry on the baseof the plinth. I must have managed toextricate myself and carried on headingfor home. At the intersection of RhodesAvenue and Second Street, the trafficlanes do not correspond between thetwo and on turning I met with an inof-fensive little guy, sitting in his VWBeetle waiting to turn right. His VWwas no match for my A40 and hesuddenly found himself 20 yards fur-ther back down the road. Luckily, nei-ther of us were injured. For my goodfortune, the Support Unit guys who hadbeen looking for me, arrived on thescene before Traffic Section. My guysfrom the Unit took me into protectivecustody and the Traffic Section settledfor an Admission of Guilt for drivingwithout due Care and Attention. As apostscript, whilst the insurance com-pany settled for the damage to the frontof my A40, I was unable to explain thedamage to my undercarriage sustainedat Rhodes' statue and had to pay thatportion of the bill myself. A small priceto pay when all was said and done. "

Page 30

CHANGES OF ADDRESS

F. R. BLAKE P/r 1119: 60Homeminster House, Station Road,Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 9BPR.de BRES 6013: 36, Hobb Hill,Staleybridge, Cheshire SK15 1TPA. DOUGALL 7002: The Shepherd' sArms, 27 Warrington Road, LowerInce, Wigan WNI 3AJ Tel: 01942 243925Martin EDWARDS 5947: 7 OrchardView Drive, Trenton, Ontario K8V6GI, Canada (613) 394 2583Ms. S. Preston WP 97 now Mrs SallyFARNDELL: 2 Danes House,Castlemount, Exeter EX4 4JWA. A. GRANGER 9086: "TheHarridge", 11 Melbourne Rise, BictonHeath, Shrewsbury SY3 5DAMike HORNER 6125: 63 SherwoodRoad, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3LBF.J JABOUR 6169: 486 BobwhiteTrail, Akron, Ohio 44319, USANigel LEAKEY 8115:46 FitzjamesAvenue, London W14 ORR Tel: 0171603 6049.J. MANNING 7440: 18 Bute Street,Bolton Woods, Bradford, West YorksBD2 I DH

Mrs Margaret MANNING (4082): 7Montague Gardens, Castle Cary,Somerset, BA 7 7BRR. J. MOLLOY 5295: 2 BallinakillCrescent, Dunmore Road, Waterford,Eire.Clive NEWTON 5887: 18 StukeleyPark, Chestnut Grove, Great Stukeley,Cambs PE17 5ADT. M. O' HARA 4563: 25 Summertrees

Court, Ashley, Hants BI125 5UD

John SCOTT 9225: 5 TurnburryMews, Coleraine Road, Portstewart,Co. Londonderry BT55 7SAAssoc C A J SHEPPARD OBM QPMCPM: No35 Fairmile House, 30Twickenham Road, Teddington,Middlesex TWI I 8BAB H SHIERS 4897:14612 Lime KilnRoad, Grass Valley, CA 95949 USA.Mark SIMPSON 6098: 28 LichfieldAvenue, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3YAB.TERRY SPR 35336: 2 Crossways„Easebourne, Midhurst, West SussexGU29 9AALance WILDER 5427: Gwel Y Don,Pant Yr Onnen, Llanfair, Nr. Harlech,Gwynedd, LL46 2SE Tel: 01766781202.Correction: 4041 Allen DAY's phonenumber was incorrect in the last issue.It should read 01524 409459

NE%' MEMBERS

Roy ASTON 7486/8864: 15 ClaytonStreet, Bolton, Lancashire BL2 INJJohn Dennis WILLOUGHBY 7050: I

Ashley Road, Dovercourt, HarwichCO12 4AN

Mr. John Patrick Hickson WRIGHT10483: 5 Nigel Court, 6 MontagueRoad, Edgbaston, Birmingham B169HR

Page 31

B.S.A. POLICE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION BRANCHES

CENTRAL: Ken Standford-Smith, PO I)ox BW 1419, Borrowdale. Hararc, Zimbabwe, Tel:(I I) Nil. (0)Nil. bdbra?id. co.zw

A(ISTRALIA: John Seward, 9/7I Epsom Avenue, Redclif'f'e 6104, Western Australia, Tcl:(Il) Nil, (0)Nil, olivoslcilprimus. corn. au

BORDER: Pauline Van Rooyen, 21 I atimer Street, Berea, I;ast London 5241, RSA, Tel:(H) (043) 7263155 (0) Nil, pvanrooy(a~global. co.za

BULAWAYO: Ray lferran, 7 Essex Road, kfillside, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Tel:(H) (09) 4515. (0)Nil,induna(riiacacia. samara. co.zw

EASTERN CAPE: Alan Fabre, PO Box 27648„Green Acres, Port Elizabeth 6057, RSA, 'I el:(ff) (041)324170 (0) Nil, tecomptonQahotmail. corn

HARARE: Dave Hawkes, PO Box 1860, Harare, Zimbabwe, Tel:(H) (04) 700747 (0) Nilpbel I ingham(@mango. zw

MAZVINGO: Robin Bull, PO Box 848, Mazvingo, Zimbabwe, Tel:(H) Nil, (0) Nil, Email; Nil

MUTARE: Neville Brent, PO Box 880, Mutare, Zimbabwe, Tel:(H) Nil, (0) Nil, Email: Nil

NATAL: I.red Mason (Chairman), PO Box 6083, Durban 4000, Kwazulu Natal„RSA, Tel:(kf) (031) 7024812, (0) (031) 303 2180, weapontQndbn. lia. net

NEW ZEALAND: John Crisp, 45 Dale Crescent, Pakuranga, Aukland 1706, New Zealand, Tel:(H) (09)576 2091 (0) Nil, Jofacr@xtra. co.nz

TRANSVAAL: Dick Glanville, PO Box 8389, Johannesburg, RSA, Tel:(H) Nil, (0) (11)4772793, 448420@beltel. co.za

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Will Cornell, 987 Chinotto Circle, Corona, California92881-8390, USA, Tel:(H) (909) 371 6118, (0) (213) 253 3590, bsapusaemail. msn. corn

WFSTERN CAPE: Wendy Meyer, PO Box 23804, Claremont, Cape Town 7735, RSA, Tel:(H)Nil, (0) (21) 683 1020, rsamoney@iafrica. corn

UNITED KINGDOM BRANCH COMMITTEE MEMBERS i' TRUSTEESChairman: Brian Gibbs 6050 - 54 Penn Way, Letchworth, Herts SG6 2SH Tel (kl) & (0) 01462 484508Hon Secretary & Trustee: Mike Leach 5479 - 5 Winksley Grove, Harrogate„N Yorkk HG3 2SZTel (If) 01423 565167 (0) 01423 530890 !t !' jj'!Treasurer: Dan kfughes 6308 - 9 Luxford Road, Tollwood Park, Crowborough. ILSussex W6 2XQTel: (fl) 01892 652546Members:& Trustee: Tim Weimer 4158 - 5 Silverdale Road, Southampton, Hants SOI 5 2NG (H) 01703 638310Peter Ellis 7125 - 46 Ford Street, Moretonhampstead, Devon TQ13 8NL Tel(H) 01647 440797Jim ffazlett 6630 - 33 Hill Farm Avenue, Whitestone, Nuneaton, Warks CVI I 6TU Tel (H) 01203 343176Ivfike I'lant 7327 - 75 Burbridge Way„Tottenham, London N17 9AH, Tel; (H) 0181 365 0054 (0) 0171 493 7771Alan Toms 7391 - 6 Kings Road, Biggin Hill, Kent TN16 3XU Tel (H) 01959 74846Peter Phillips 6905 - 28 Cemmaes Court Road, kfemel ffempstead, Herts HP I I SU Tel: (H)01442 244919(O)0171 929 9316Other Trustee:Allen Lucas 4393 - 7 llaysums Close, Chipping Campden. Gloucs GL55 6L'kl (fl) 01386 841800

fhe United Kingdom Outpost is published by the United Kingdom Branch of the British South AfricaPolice Regimental Association and the B S A P Trust, the kfon. Secretary as indicated below. Opinionsand views expressed herein do not necessarily constitute the official views of the Branch or Trust.