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 available to members.
