Gordon MacLachlan, who was in Hervey House from 1972 until the end of 1976, was killed in a contact on 2nd July 1978, shortly before completing his National Service as a rifleman with A Company, 10th Battalion of the Rhodesia Regiment.
He was a quiet and friendly boy who was popular with his contemporaries and, in spite of an inherent shyness, he was always willing to take on anything when called upon to do so. He was a House Prefect in his last year, and his chief interest lay in the activities of the Exploration Society.
It was on that Society’s 1975 expedition to Four Rivers Camp in the Okavango that he had to be flown out with a suspected skull fracture after the Land-Rover of the Museum Staff, in which he was a passenger, had overturned. However, when this proved happily not to be the case, he returned to the expedition to indulge his interest in entomology, working under the direction or Dr. Pinhey.
He was also on the 1976 expedition to Mosdene, shortly before he went into the Army.
Gordon was a gentle, retiring young man, and his death came as a great shock to his many friends. To his parents, and to his younger brother Anton (H’79), we extend our deepest sympathy.
From The Falcon (with dates added)
Additional information added from: Rhodesian Combined Forces Roll of Honour, kindly provided by Gerry van Tonder, one of its co-authors