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Here is Des Mooney's obituary from the Freight & Trade Weekly:  (Thanks to Brian Kalshoven)

The freight industry has just said a fond farewell to Des Mooney, who died as a result of a heart attack, but left a clutch of pleasant memories with family, friends and co-workers.  A long-time business colleague and friend, John Buchell, MD of Heneways, captured part of the  Mooney character when he said he was “a pleasure to work with, and a man who was distinctly pro-active in dealing with issues in the freight industry”.  The two first met during Mooney’s 11-year chairmanship of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) in Gauteng. “During his term in office, it was a pleasure to have him in that post,” said Buchell.  “His stint with us as operations manager at Heneways was the last permanent post he held in a long history with the freight industry before he finally established himself as a consultant to theindustry, and to specific, selected clients.”  Through FTW, the industry says goodbye to Des Mooney.

Added November 3, 2009)

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Sad to Hear of the Passing of Tubby Tolson  by Andre Guernier

I was saddened to read of the passing of Tubby Tolson.  I first met Tubby while stationed in Ndola in the year prior to the break-up of the Federation.

Tubby was, as I remember, stationed at one of our border stations on the Congo/Northern Rhodesia border.  One of his duties was to conduct a regular patrol along the length of the Luapula River, which formed the border between the NR and the Congo, to as far as Lake Mweru and back.  Tubby invited me to join him on one such patrol.

The patrol meant that we had to cross the Congo Pedicle from just outside Mufulira, cross the Luapula by ferry, and re-enter NR on the other side of the Pedicle.

It was then a case of following a very rough dirt road all the way up the Luapula river bank taking in Fort Rosebery, checking the odd village store for possible contraband and visiting medical centres along the way to ensure that rebated alcohol, used for medical purposes, was being properly stored and accounted for.

The area was possibly one of the most heavily populated parts of NR that I had been to.  The road was literally bordered by non-stop villages on either side all the way to Lake Mweru itself.  Tubby had jokingly called it Main Street Africa.

As we travelled along this rough road we had to be very careful not to hit some kid that would, without warning, dash from one side of the road to the other without looking and often emerging suddenly from behind a clump of tall grass.

Fortunately, we managed to avoid the disaster of collecting one of these dozens of kids, even dogs and goats that were equally prolific and just as good at attempting a suicidal crossing.  But the hundreds of chickens were another matter altogether.  On this trip we collected only three.  But Tubby told me that on some trips his “kill rate” could run to the twenties and more.  The way he was describing it to me I rather imagined that he might have painted chickens stencilled on the outside of the Customs Land Rover door representing each of his “kills”.

I can’t remember how things went during the years in between, but Tubby, Averil and the kids did visit LM, staying with Muk Micklesfield and his family, during the early 1970’s.

I saw Tubby and Averil again in Perth during the mid 1980’s but sort of lost contact after that.

My condolences go to his family.

Andre

4 September 2008

NOTE: A picture, provided by Andre, has been added to the "We Remember" photo album, only available to members.