After completing my PhD studies in Edinburgh I returned to Harare, Zimbabwe (then Salisbury, Rhodesia) in 1968 to start a virus laboratory in the recently established medical school, and sometime later I was asked by the Director of Veterinary Services whether I could train a veterinarian to run a virology unit at the Veterinary Research Laboratory (VRL) in Harare. In walked Gavin Thomson, the young District Veterinary Officer from Whange, and we got on extremely well from the start despite the fact that as typical OP graduates of that era neither of us lacked any self-confidence.

Before the virology unit at VRL was completed Gavin left to do an MSc in immunology in Birmingham, UK, and then returned to run the new unit in Harare for a year before again leaving to do a PhD project on equine influenza at the Royal Veterinary College in London under the supervision of the renowned Professor Plowright. After completing his PhD Gavin joined the staff of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute as it was then known, but during the months he spent in my lab and the year he worked at the VRL in Harare we would play nine holes of golf with colleagues late on Friday afternoons, badly in my case, and watch rugby at weekends. Afterwards we would quaff a few ales and dissect the golf or rugby with mutually derisive comments before settling down to the inevitable veterinary tales such as James Herriot would never have dreamt of publishing. Gavin freely told stories at his own expense of the inauspicious start to his veterinary career although he would later, quite unjustifiably of course, accuse me of embellishing the tales. 

One often hears about the mythical absent-minded professor, and despite his sharp mind, or perhaps because of it, Gavin was the archetypal absent-minded professor. At the time that he graduated, State Veterinarians in southern Africa would invariably cut their teeth on foot and mouth disease (FMD) patrols and blockades before the use of vaccines eased the situation. The hardened older Animal Health Inspectors would relish the opportunity of introducing young veterinarians to the rigours of FMD campaigns, which somehow always took place in the most remote and torrid corners of the sub-continent. So it was no surprise that as a brand new graduate Gavin found himself assigned to a team headed by Jimmy Thompson, the Provincial Veterinary Officer of Matabeleland based in Bulawayo, but operating in an FMD campaign near the south-eastern corner of Zimbabwe, on the banks of the Limpopo River in what was then Victoria Province. The blood heat of the shallow Limpopo Valley has to be experienced to be believed, and the river itself usually stops flowing during the dry season or is reduced to a crocodile-infested trickle, so it offers no refuge from the oppressive heat.

The parched old-timers felt the need for libation, and as the new kid on the block Gavin was dispatched in the most asthmatic old Landrover in government service with a suitable cover story about fetching supplies to go and collect a load of beer from the isolated Lion and Elephant Hotel on the banks of the dry Bubi River, about 200 km away over deeply rutted and sandy roads. He got to the hotel in the heat of midday and after loading a cargo of beer he slaked his thirst with a pint or two in the bar before setting off on the return journey. He was rather surprised that the vehicle seemed extra sluggish under the load of beer and after about 20 km it finally ground to a halt with acrid smoke filling the cab. In those pre-cell phone days Gavin had no option but to stagger back through the thick sand and heat to the hotel, where he had to explain his woes by telephone to the nearest government mechanic some 200 km further up the road in Masvingo (Fort Victoria), and then had to wait for two days for the mechanic to arrive.

One can imagine that back in camp on the Limpopo the team was not charmed as they waited each evening for the sundowners that failed to arrive. Meanwhile the mechanic eventually arrived and took Gavin back to the Landrover, simply to release the handbrake! In the Landrovers of that era the handbrake operated a band that pulled tight around a flywheel at the back of the gearbox inside the passenger cab; hence the clouds of smoke that had filled the vehicle.

Gavin never related what was said on his return to the FMD picket camp, but flushed with that success he was posted to Mutare (known as Umtali at the time) on the eastern border of the country. There one of his first tasks was to organize and conduct a rabies vaccination campaign for dogs in the rural Buhera district, some 200 km from Mutare and again partly over rough roads. It was not possible to visit every household to vaccinate dogs, so ‘organizing’ meant working through chiefs and village headmen to convince people of the need to walk their dogs long distances to be at the nearest appointed vaccinating site on the appointed day. Then one needed to ensure that the vaccine would be transported and used with strict maintenance of ‘cold chain’ conditions and that one had all the necessary equipment for restraining dogs, administering vaccine, tattooing the dogs’ ears to confirm vaccination, and stationery requirements to record the details of the campaign. 

On the appointed day Gavin set off before dawn with his team only to arrive at the first vaccination site without syringes or hypodermic needles! Great consternation descended upon a scene that is normally chaotic anyway, with dogs fighting and defaecating and escaping all over the place. Fortunately, it eventually transpired that the remains of the day could be rescued through borrowing injection equipment from a nearby district hospital. 

There were more stories of this nature, but we all have similar experiences and I do not want to create the impression that Gavin was particularly prone to these lapses. Far from it, he had an incisive mind, uniquely adept at lateral thinking and coming up with solutions to complex problems that were elegant in their simplicity. His contributions to veterinary science and its practical application found relevance not only on the continent of Africa, but I leave it to others to complete the picture. 

Gavin, old friend, I salute you. Margie, Charlotte, Rowena and Robyn, we share your loss.