CHIEF STANISLAS KASUSURA (71) former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Chairman of the National Milling Board died at his home in Biharamulo on March 25.

LT.COL. PIP FRASER-SMITH CBE (74) was awarded an MC when serving with an intelligence unit operating behind the Japanese lines in Burma during the Second World War. In Tanganyika he held many posts including DC Maasailand and Dar es Salaam and, after Independence, Provincial Commissioner, Mwanza, Regional Commissioner, Mtwara and eventually Commissioner for Village Settlements in Dar es Salaam (Thank you Randal Sadleir for this note).

NICK NYOKA (Kiswahili for snake) the Stockton-born zookeeper and owner, who was described in the Daily Telegraph as a fearless subjugator of wild animals has died. He owned ‘Cassius’ which, at 28ft. was the longest snake in captivity and also ‘Simba’ the largest captive lion in the world which he caught on the Serengeti Plain in 1959. The lion weighed 826 lbs and consumed more than 20 lbs of meat and a gallon of milk every day. It appeared in the film ‘Cleopatra’ with Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.

CANON WILLIAM (BILL) L SPENCER (80) died on March 25 at Ndanda Hospital. He first went to Tanzania in 1952 and served as a parish priest at Nachingwea for many years before returning in 1986 to St. Cyprian’s College, Lindi, where he continued to teach with devotion as long as possible. (Thank you Christine Lawrence for this note – Editor).

HUGH FRANCIS LAMPREY (67), Director of the Mweka College of African Wildlife Management (1962-66) and of the Serengeti Research Institute (1966-72) died on February 10 after a long illness. He started his African career in the Tanganyikan Game Department (1953), where he designed methods of estimating game densities which are still widely used, and for which he received the OBE and the Order of the Golden Ark. His boundless enthusiasm and sympathy inspired many people and he will be remembered for his wide knowledge of ecology and natural history and his skills as a pilot. After postings in Nairobi with UNEP and the WWF until 1990 Hugh and his wife Ros lived in Devon (Little Widefield Farm, Inwardleigh, Okehampton).(Thank you Jane Kruuk for this note – Editor).

MRS EZERINA MALECELA (62) the wife of former Prime Minister John Malecela died in Nairobi on December 27. She had been until her death a Senior State Attorney and also the Chairperson of the Tanzania Girl Guides Association.

JOHN STANLEY MARCUS VINTER (77), who served in many administrative posts in Tanganyika/Tanzania from 1947 to 1962 died on December 14. He studied Islamic Law at SOAS and was later involved in the expansion of Makerere University and in the organisation of the 1962 Republic Day Celebrations. PROFESSOR MBOYA S D BAGACHWA (45), a leading economist and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam, died on April 7