ANASTASIOS CHRISTODOULOU (70) CBE, a Cypriot recruit to the British Colonial Service, served in Tanganyika from 1956 to 1962 as a District Officer/District Commissioner and magistrate. He later achieved considerable fame as founding secretary of the British Open University and was responsible for every aspect of the academic, financial, staff and general administration. He was also Secretary­General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

GEOFFREY HUCKS OBE (95), who died on August 4th was District Commissioner in Iringa in the early 50’s and later became Acting Provincial Commissioner in the then Southern Highlands Province. He became more widely known when he was appointed Supervisor of Elections during Tanzania’s first general election (Thank you Michael Longford for sending this news -Editor).

Advocate ELEUTHA FABIAN KAPINGA was killed by bandits on June 10th in Dar es Salaam. During a distinguished career Mr Kapinga had been Deputy Director of the Tanzania Legal Corporation, many times President of the Tanzania Law Society and a board member of the Tanzania Cigarette Company. He was buried in his village in Mbinga District, Ruvuma Region.

RONALD NEATH (81) who died on May 4th was among the more progressive administrators who served in the administration in Tanganyika from the late 1940’s to mid-1960’s, something which tied in well with the pre-independence political scene at the time. After leaving Tanzania he had a distinguished career in the United Nations in New York and Geneva. (Thank you Tony Lee for this -Editor).

Described in the Tanzanian Guardian as one of the pillars of the Kagera War against Iddi Amin in Uganda, MAJOR GENERAL JOHN W ALDEN has died. He was a retired Divisional Commander of the Tanzania People’s Defence forces (TPDF). In field operations he picked up the code name “Commander Black Mamba”. He was described as having represented a relic of Tanzania’s colonial history ­that of successful localisation of German era settlers.

The well known wildlife photographer and conservationist HUGO VAN LARWICK, who was born in the Netherlands but lived and worked largely in Tanzania for many years, has died. The Government decided that, although cremation had been planned originally, his body would be buried at Lake Ndutu in the Serengeti National Park. In its leading article on 7th June the Guardian wrote ‘Having the body of Hugo van Larwick placed to rest within the Serengeti helps us to grasp how far we are part of humanity living near the Serengeti rather than owning it. Humanity will feel closer to us when students of nature from around the world will be visiting his memorial site in the park. This will be similar to visitors making their way to Mwalimu Nyerere’s grave in Butiama or to see Chief Mkwawa’s skull in Iringa.