It is with much sadness that I report that Tony Kemp former DST(SF) (Member 0562) Crossed the Bar on Thursday 3rd February 2022 at his care home in Wimbourne aged 90 . I have absolutely no more details as yet and will sitrep this page accordingly if and when they become available. My thanks to Rex Cooper for the heads-up.
On behalf of the RFA Association and all Tony’s former shipmates and colleagues I offer our sincere condolences to all his family.
Tony had been STO(N) of RFA Fort Charlotte back in the Singapore days which also warrants an RFA Ensign at half Mast.
If you have any remembrances of Tony please email it to me at captain.pat@rfaa.uk and I will post them on this page. Alternatively you can post to our facebook page “RFA Crossed the Bar”. I am also looking for photographs of Tony for this piece and the RFA Association Gallery and Archive, if you have one please email it to me.
The following was written by John Luxford, a close freind of Tony’s:-
He had been in a care home for about two years and he had quite serious health problems. His wife Pat died last year, and they had been married for 67 years. Tony and I were at school together in Nottinghamshire and we took the Limited Executive Class exam at the same time. We were both appointed to the Admiralty, Tony to the Victualling Stores Department and me to Armament Supply. I was his best man at his wedding in 1953 and he and Pat always kindly regarded me as a sort of family member, and I enjoyed staying with them and their three children plus dog.Tony started at Roche Court in Fareham, which I think was a sort of regional HQ for the Victualling Stores and served in London, Bath, Singapore, Faslane, and Eaglescliffe. He also attended the NATO Defence College course in Rome. In retirement Tony and Pat lived in Wimborne in Dorset.
Tony’s daughter Alison told me that because Tony died just six months after his wife Pat, and because of illness in the family they have decided not to have a formal funeral at this time. They will have a ceremony later in the Spring when his ashes will be interred in a Woodland Burial Site near his wife’s ashes. I hope to be able to attend and Alan Rix has said that he will drive me there ( wherever the Site is in Dorset) if possible.
Tony Kemp was my oldest friend and we had known each other for 77 years.