EA & Rhodesia - 16/6/55 - Mr Alan Cooper, a Kenya farmer, and Miss Muriel Taylor, a Cheshire school mistress, died of thirst, and Mr Peter Barnes, a Kenya student, and Miss Barbara Duthy, a Nairobi zoologist, had narrow escapes when Mr Cooper's car, in which they were travelling north of Agades in the Sahara desert, stuck in the sand. Mr Cooper set off on foot for Guezzam, and after covering 62 of the 65 miles was picked up by a lorry, in which, accompanied by another car, he returned to the marooned party. Miss Duthy boarded the lorry and the other three members of the party started off in front of the newly-arrived vehicles. Soon afterwards the party found that the lorry was not in sight and waited. The other car approached, but went past on a detour without seeing them. They drained the radiator of water and waited. Mr Cooper died the next day and Miss Taylor three days later. Mr Barnes was rescued by French soldiers and taken in a state of collapse to the Legionnaires' Hospital at Agades, where he was treated for three weeks.

Gazette 12 July 1955 probate