I always loved listening to Tony's aviation stories, being ex RAF myself.  He spent most of the war in the Middle East and was the personal aircraft engineer for a very senior RAF officer’s Dakota.  He was based at RAF Helwan in the Nile Delta. His boss, who regarded Tony as his lucky mascot and would not fly without him, was responsible for air communications in the Middle East, including East Africa, and Tony flew everywhere with him from Mozambique to Syria, including Zanzibar. Tony passed through there in about 1943, for one night.  As the Air Marshal was very important they were entertained and accommodated by the Governor of Tanganyika at the Sultans Palace. Unfortunately, he remembered little about Zanzibar, but he certainly remembered the evening as they all got a little worse for ware (!) and stayed up all night playing snooker, on the Sultans lavish table, including the Governor and the Air Marshal. At dawn they were taken to the airfield and poured on board their aircraft.  Eventually they got it started and somehow got it off the ground and pointed towards Nairobi, their next stop. The navigator was not on top form, and was apparently slumped over his navigators desk for the whole flight.  The Governor had suggested that as long as they kept 19,000 feet Mount Kilimanjaro to their left, the Mombasa railway on the right, and head straight for 17,000 feet Mt Kenya they should get to Nairobi and find RAF Eastleigh at some point! Which they did, thank goodness.

A wonderful, warm uncle and friend.