The Spain Family

This is an interesting item to come up now........

I see in the Open letters Forum No 612 of 22nd of March a letter from Barbara Thomas speculating on the accident that led to the death of David and Dot Spain and their daughter Beverley. In this highly charged and rumour filled society it is important that we get our facts right. The Spains were killed in a road accident at the beginning of March 1981 while taking their daughter Beverley to start her nursing career in Durban. They were in a new Peugeot 504 which had just replaced David's old Mercedes 280. David was the President of the CFU at the time and Denis Norman was Minister of Agriculture. I was the Vice President of the Union at the time and took over the job from David. There has never been any suggestion that it was anything but an accident and I am sure that David and Dot's 2 surviving daughters would not want that suggestion to gain any credence.

David was an outstanding President and it was largely due to his efforts that the farming community by and large survived and worked their way through those early years of independence. He was also a lovely bloke and Ann and I still miss him and Dot very much.

Best wishes JAG and keep up the good work.

Jim Sinclair