Judy Bowles 30/10/1932 - 15/02/2008

Edition 402 March 7 - 14, 2008

Well-known Maun personality dies in UK

Judy Bowles, who with her husband, Jeff, lived in Maun from the mid-1970s to 1990 has died in Wales.

The mother of six and grandmother of seven, came to South Africa in 1970 and then moved to Lobatse (1973) and Francistown before settling in Maun in 1974, where her husband was Chief Tsetse Officer. The couple married in Britain in 1952.

The family returned to Britain , living first in Scotland until 2006 and then to Wales to be nearer her family as a result of ill-health.

In Maun, Bowles was office manager from 1980 to 1990 for the well-known Travel Wild company and was also acting British High Commission Liaison Officer for Maun and Ngamiland. The Bowles couple occasionally ran the Island Safari Lodge with her husband when Tony Graham and family were on holiday.

A family spokesman said she had loved the Okavango and made lots of really good friends. She also enjoyed the social life of Maun.

She spent a lot of time in the bush with Jeff, and they were noted for their all-night ‘Cut-Line parties’ during night spraying operations. She was highly sociable, and ‘Parrot Christmas’ was a social highlight of the year, held in mid-June / July when colder weather allowed a full-scale Northern hemisphere Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

She and her husband returned twice to Maun, once to be greeted with a ‘Parrot Christmas’ organised at the old Duck Inn, and once for wildlife photographer Tim Liversedge's 50th birthday ‘Swamp Party.’

She always regretted not being able to take to Britain their domestic worker in Lobatse and Maun, Mabasadi Kegope, who worked with her for almost 20 years. Her ashes are to be scattered in the place she really called home, Abriachan in Scotland .

Judy Bowles died at the age of 75 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on February 15 from complications following surgery to remove an ovarian tumour. Her family was at her side.

She is survived by her husband, Jeff, six children - Nick, Ben, Tim, Sue, Jonathan and Sally - and 7 grandsons.