Geoff Milsom 99th birthday

Geoff Milsom celebrated his 99th birthday at White Waltham, with old friends from Fairey Surveys, on Saturday 13th May 2023.

Photograph courtesy of John Tompkins (with Ken Fostekew taking his own photograph).

Ken Fostekew has passed on some of his photographs from the birthday celebration, and here is a better photograph of the cake:

Bob Purcell

Mariette has sent us an update (7th April 2023):

“Bobby went into the local residential home earlier this week.  Along with his favourite book….”

Bob’s daughter Mariette found the website, and Bob has been sharing reminiscences of his times in South America, Africa, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and of the people he knew at Fairey Surveys. His story of Christmas in Saudi Arabia is already on the website:
Christmas in Saudi Arabia 1967

Mariette has sent us this photograph today (21st February 2023) with the message:
“Bobby sends his love to you all”

If anyone would like to get in touch with Bob or to be remembered to him, please send your message and contact details to admin@faireysurveys.co.uk and we’ll forward them on to him.

Beechcraft G-AZFS and G-AZOH photographs

Ken Fostekew sent these photographs over, from the person who was involved with the equipment installation for Fairey Surveys. Unfortunately his contact details have been lost, but the photographs tell the story. The first two photographs are of G-AZFS, and the others are all of G-AZOH.

Doing a quick search on G-AZOH brought up the attached accident report published on the Government Air Accident Investigation Branch website. Looking at the date, and the pilot details, the pilot was probably Geoff Milsom, who kept the plane under control when a wheel came off after landing at White Waltham. Does anyone have any more details?

To see larger versions of the photographs, right click the photograph and select ‘Open image in new tab’

Malcolm Eaton RIP

Funeral arrangements have arrived from the

family:

Monday May 16th, 3:30 pm, Easthampstead Crematorium, Bracknell.


News has come from John Tompkins that Malcolm Eaton died on 14th April. Funeral details will follow when we hear from his wife Josie. He was at Warren Lodge Home in Wokingham for the last six months, but had been ill for three years.

Malcolm joined what was then the Air Survey Company in 1956 (on the same day as John Tompkins!).

With Bix Clark, Malcolm headed up the Livingston office of Fairey Surveys, which was set up in 1973. Below is a photograph of Fairey Surveys Scotland staff from about 1974, sent in a few years ago by John Scarrott, and another which is the earliest photograph we have of Malcolm in the cricket team (but there are a number of others!), presumably at White Waltham Cricket Club, where there are also photographs of him on the walls of the clubhouse.

Faireys Surveys Scotland Ltd – Staff circa 1974 L-R Bill Clark, Isobel (Secretary), John Scarrott, Malcolm Eaton, Neil, Dave, Linda and Isabel (our four trainee draughtsmen), Graham Longley
8th September 1959
Back row L-R: Malcolm Eaton, Tony Philips, Bill Steadman, Tony Walker, ?, Jim Storey
Front row L-R: Pete ?, Peter Forsey, Peter Challis, Brian Atwen

Anthony (Tony) Furneaux RIP

Update from David Furneaux:

The address for messages of condolence is: David Furneaux, Seymour, Whitchurch Hill, Reading RG8 7PG.

For those unable to attend the service, David has arranged a webcast which will be broadcast live, and then available to watch for 28 days after the event. Below are the Username and Password for the webcast along with the times it will be available to view. You can login to the website at any time to view a Test Webcast, which we would recommend doing in plenty of time before the service:

Usernamesate3288
Password771753
Service DateFriday 19th November
Service Time1:00 pm
Service Viewing Time12:56 pm – 1:50 pm
Websitehttps://watch.obitus.com
Once the viewing window has passed the Live Webcast will then automatically close and a message will appear saying “This funeral service has now finished”. The aim is to get the watch again Webcast back online on Friday 26th November, where it will be available to view until Wednesday 29th December using the same Login Information.

—————————————————————————————————-

Sad news has come in from David Furneaux, Tony’s son. His email is shown below:

Tony passed away on Monday 25th October at his care home in Henley. He was going downhill due to his dementia but succumbed to a chest infection. He was 94.

His funeral is on Friday, 19th November 13:00 at Reading Crematorium. We will have some drinks and snacks afterwards (TBA) to celebrate his life. Could you please communicate this to all his ex work colleagues as I’m sure you will have contact with many of them. Also, If people wish to attend the after event, could they let me know so I have a rough idea of the numbers for catering.

My Dad loved his time at Faireys. He always talked of his fondness for the people he worked with and never had a bad word to say about anyone.

Thanks,

David Furneaux

Please let us know at admin@faireysurveys.co.uk if you want to attend the after event, and the responses will be passed on to David Furneaux.

Below is a photograph of Tony at the 2004 BBQ at White Waltham, which seems a real classic, and another taken at work, where he wasn’t quite so happy!

John Cripwell, Tony Furneaux, Eileen Donovan (Storrie)

A Fairey Story by Ken Fostekew (Foz)

Zanzibar 1977

In 1977 the company was awarded a Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) 166 contract to photograph the island of Zanzibar. As was often the case I was sent on ahead of the aircraft which was Beech B80 Queen Air G-AZOH, to organise the supply of breathing oxygen, transport, accommodation, and any other things that may have been needed.

At the briefing prior to departure I was instructed to make contact with the British High Commission in Dar-es-Salaam for advice on the dispatch of finished film to Reform Road. It wasn’t until the company tried to book me an airline ticket that it was discovered that East African Airlines had ceased to operate and as a result the border between Kenya and Tanzania was closed and no traffic between the two countries was allowed.

However, suddenly “Kenya Airways” appeared on the scene, so imagine my concern at LHR when I saw a Boeing 707 parked outside with “Kenya Airways” rather hastily painted on it. I relaxed somewhat on boarding to find that the crew were all in East Midlands uniforms, probably at that time the largest airline charter and leasing company in UK.

The flight arrived in Nairobi where I transferred to a Swiss Air for Dar-es-Salaam. I discovered that was the route into Rhodesia from Geneva to Johannesburg then back up to Salisbury. As the embargo on Rhodesia was still in operation, there were no direct flights from LHR to Salisbury – I learnt this from fellow passengers.

I arrived in Dar-es-Salaam about midday on Saturday and was unable to contact the High Commission until 9am on Monday, so looked around the city, not a very inspiring experience all rather run down with very little in what shops there were.

All in contrast with the descriptions that some other company people told me to expect, but of course, by then very much under the influence of the old Soviet Union. An example, road traffic was not allowed on Sundays due to fuel shortages and every ship in the port was Russian and the harbour side was littered with packing cases and wooden boxes all with Russian script on them. The larger ones had been made into “homes” for otherwise homeless local folk. 

I was at the High Commission on Monday prompt at 9am and taken to the office of Kevin O’Connell (I think that was his name?) and after giving him an outline of the work in Zanzibar, I was strongly advised never go out alone after 6pm as “Dar” was a pretty lawless place. Only the previous week a secretary from the Japanese Embassy had been murdered on the waterfront. Also, I was advised to register my passport, for the first time ever in my travels! 

G-AZOH arrived the 8th August with Captain John Mullin and Navigator/Tracker Ron Neal. We departed “Dar” for Zanzibar on the 10th August. The clove harvest had just been completed and the air was full of the aroma of cloves. Zanzibar and Pemba are well known as the spice islands.

The photo lab was set up in the survey department and I was introduced to Mr John Fernandez who was astounded to learn that mixing the developer and hypo was just a matter of adding water! at the correct temperatures, of course. A supply of ice is always essential in tropical climates. John showed me a collection of ancient tins of photo chemicals that were used many years ago when John was based on the island of Pemba along with an equally ancient enlarger and lenses.

The DOS surveyors were living in the same hotel, which was operated by the Indian Oberoi Hotel Group, and were able to brief us about the local conditions on the island. In contrast to the mainland, Zanzibar was very quiet and interesting but rather sad and very rundown with derelict buildings in the main town “Stonetown” many of which had simply collapsed and blocked off many of the narrow streets. Almost as if it had suffered an earthquake.

At the time of our visit Zanzibar had not really recovered from the revolution that had taken place in 1964. It became a Marxist state with no free trade and no shops and none of the usual markets that one finds in most other countries, very much a time warp with quite ancient cars running around, even two old Austin 7s remarkably still mobile.

We met the American girl who was in effect the US representative on Zanzibar and she explained that she was simply a “listening post” as the North Koreans and East Germans were very much in evidence. Our fuel had been shipped over in barrels by Dhow and refuelling was done by “wobble” pump as there were no facilities at the airport for fuel or any engineering, it had all been cleared away. The airport “shop” only opened for the daily Air Madagascar B737 and as soon as it departed everything closed again.

Travel around the island from one zone to another was strictly restricted, except for the DOS surveyors, though we were often promised a guided tour by the island’s chief surveyor, which didn’t happen until two days before our departure and a very rapid tour at that !. Our work progressed reasonably well given the tropical weather conditions. Our one serious incident was when we had a dead cut on the starboard engine and the tops of the coconut trees were getting rather too close for comfort. But thanks to the airmanship of pilot John Mullin we landed back safely only to find two magnetos had failed. A signal was sent to UK and engineer Ken O’Dell eventually arrived with two replacements and soon we were again serviceable.

Frequent trips were made to the mainland to dispatch processed film to UK.

On our return from one of the mainland trips, we learned that the company had gone into receivership, very worrying as our credit was stopped and Amex and Diners Club cards could not be used. One of the DOS surveyors reported that word had gone around asking who is this man Fostekew with 25,000 shillings in the bank – the local currency was the shilling. It was explained that it was to pay for the fuel to include hardship payment as the Dhow crew would cook their food with barrels of Avgas on board and cash had to be used. The credit situation was resolved after a couple of weeks. By then the season was coming to an end and the rainy season was imminent. The aircraft departed on the 17th of October for further work in Nigeria, while I set off back home.

On arrival in Nairobi I met the late Ian Smith and his wife Helen. Ian was working for a photographic survey company, the name of which escapes me! Helen was working for the British High Commission and had news of the company going into receivership long before we were informed. We had dinner together in the evening and the following morning I departed for London.  All in all a very interesting trip,

The work was finished the next year 1978 using the BN2 Islander G-AVKC. The crew were Captain Tom Kirkwood, navigator/tracker Adrian Saul and photographer Brian Corbin.

Now, of course, Zanzibar is open to tourists and quite a different place than it was in the 1960s and 1970, when there was still a poor old elephant tethered by chains in what was possibly once the Sultan’s palace and gardens, the remains of which were still visible. The house that was used by Dr Livingstone became a school and the old British Embassy where Dr Livingstone’s body was placed prior to returning to Britain is (or was) still there. It was quite disturbing to see school children being drilled in the “goose step” in the playground.

Dates courtesy of the late Ron Neal’s flying logbook.

Aerial photographic map of Rhodesia

An email has come in from Ian Titchner, who has in his possession a Fairey Air Surveys aerial photographic map 3ft x 4ft (presumably a mosaic) of Salisbury in Rhodesia, which he is offering free of charge to anyone who would appreciate it.

If anyone is interested, please email admin@faireysurveys.co.uk, and we will pass your message on – the Reply/Comments feature seems to have a glitch at the moment.

The email is below:

=============================
My name is Ian Titchner, I’m 59 years old and live in Cornwall, I have no connection to Zimbabwe or Fairey at all. For several years now I have been in possession of a huge and splendid black and white photographic aerial map of central Salisbury, Rhodesia. When I say huge …. it is 3ft wide and 4ft tall, it has some of the (old?) road names super-imposed onto it, also the names of some “important” buildings. I had intended to put it on eBay assuming that it may be of interest to past or present residents of Salisbury, but when I found your website I thought I’d offer it here first. I guess that the photograph was taken in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, but I am no expert! The scale of the map/photograph is 10 inches to 1 mile. Anyway, it’s one of those things that keeps cropping up annually and I keep thinking that I’ll put it on eBay and I never get around to it. I pulled it out again this morning and had a good look at it and noticed the name Fairey Air Surveys, hence this eMail. It has been neatly folded for donkey’s years so there is minor damage where the folds cross each other, that said it is in excellent condition given that it must be over 50 years old. Because of the size of it, taking a photograph would not really do it justice. My question is ….. does anyone want it? I don’t want any money for it, simply eMail me your address and I will post it to you, it needs to be in the hands of somebody who will appreciate it! If “Admin” are not interested, please feel free to share this eMail on your site, in case somebody else is interested in it. Needless to say, I only have one of these so ultimately it will have to be sent to the first person to contact me.
==========================