'Much-loved' Brit teacher trampled to death by elephant on Africa safari identified
A school has paid a heartbreaking tribute to a British tourist who was crushed to death by an elephant on a safari.
Brit Janet Easton, 68, was fatally trampled on by a nursing elephant in Africa. Tour guides desperately tried to save her but were unable to deter the animal on July 3. The ex-chemistry teacher was sadly killed alongside another female tourist from New Zealand.
She has been identified as Alison Taylor, 67. The pair were on a guided safari trip at the South Luangwa National Park when tragedy struck. They were walking around when the animal suddenly charged towards them at high speed. Tour workers attempted to block the animal by using firing shots but failed.
Now, her former place of work, Titus Salt School in Baildon, Bradford, has paid tribute. On its website, she was described as an "intreped traveller" and "much-loved" friend. The teacher, also known as Janice, taught at the site from September 1983 until she retired in August 2022.
Headteacher Phil Temple said she was "admired" for her skills. He wrote: 'Sad news. We are sorry to hear the tragic news of the death of our friend and former colleague. Janice Easton whilst travelling in Africa. Janice started working at Titus Salt School in September 1983 and completed almost 40 years of service when she retired in August 2022.
"Janice was a highly skilled Chemistry teacher and was for many years responsible for transition to high school. In these roles and others Janice had a profound impact on generations of pupils and students in the local community as well as countless colleagues who admired her skill, tenacity and determination to ensure all young people had the opportunity to succeed.
"As well as an exemplary professional Janice was an intrepid traveller, keen photographer and much-loved friend. Janice will be fondly remembered by all in the Titus Salt School and wider communities." Local police chief Robertson Mweemba earlier told the BBC: "They were moving to other camps when the elephant charged from behind. We are really sorry that we have lost our visitors. They both died on the spot." He continued: "It is very difficult to control the animals and tourists like feeding them."
The tour was operated by Expert Africa, reports The Times. Managing director Chris McIntyre, previously said: 'This was a deeply tragic and highly unusual incident in one of Africa's most remote wilderness areas. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the travellers involved. Our priority has been supporting the families in every way possible. We remain in close contact, doing what we can to assist them. We are liaising closely with the local authorities, our partners on the ground and the relevant consular services to support those involved and to understand how this tragic event occurred. We will, of course, co-operate fully with any official investigations that take place.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
7 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Mother of Air India crash victim ‘heartbroken' after remains wrongly identified
The mother of a British Air India crash victim has said her family is 'heartbroken' after receiving news the remains of her son were wrongly identified, The Sunday Times reported. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport on June 12, killing 241 people on board. Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in terms of the number of British fatalities. Among the British victims were Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband Jamie, 45, who had been returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India. Mr Greenlaw-Meek's mother, Amanda Donaghey, told The Sunday Times she flew to India after the crash in order to find her son's remains, providing a DNA sample at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital to assist the identification process. Following a match on June 20 last year, she returned to the UK with Mr Greenlaw-Meek's coffin. But on July 5, as Mr Greenlaw-Meek and his husband's families prepared to bury the married couple together, police told Ms Donaghey that DNA tests carried out in the UK showed Mr Greenlaw-Meek's remains were not in the coffin. 'We don't know what poor person is in that casket,' she told The Sunday Times. 'I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking. 'This is an appalling thing to have happened,' she added. 'And we would now like the British Gvernment to do everything in its power to find out, and bring Fiongal home.' It was revealed last week the coffin of another repatriated British victim, 71-year-old Shobhana Patel, contained remains of multiple people, The Sunday Times reported. Mrs Patel was killed alongside her husband Ashok, 74, as they returned to the UK from a Hindu religious trip. Their son Miten Patel told The Sunday Times: 'There may have been a mistake done. 'But for religious reasons we need to make sure my mother is my mother and not somebody else's remains. 'Knowing 100% that it is my mum is very important to us.' Shobhana and Ashok Patel were laid to rest last week, The Sunday Times said. International aviation lawyer James Healey-Pratt, whose firm Keystone Law is representing families of victims of the Air India crash, has told Times Radio the identification issues have raised concerns over the total number of victims whose identities may have been misattributed. 'We know that 12 caskets were repatriated from India to the UK,' he said. 'Of those 12, two had been mishandled, misidentified. 'And so if you extrapolate that sample, you're looking at 40 mishandled remains out of 240. 'So that's a very large number, but we simply don't know. 'And to date, the Indian authorities have not been transparent or helpful about that, which is why there was pressure put on by the families to the FCO and the Prime Minister's office. 'And this was actually mentioned in the meeting at Chequers between Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Modi on Thursday. 'So the families are waiting to hear, first thing next week, about what actions are really being done in India to provide some degree of assurance.' It is understood no blame is being put on any UK agency for the blunders, Mr Healy-Pratt previously told the PA news agency. The only surviving passenger on the plane was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who previously told The Sun it was a 'miracle' he was alive but felt 'terrible' he could not save his brother Ajay. A preliminary report into the incident from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found both of the plane's fuel switches moved to the 'cut-off' position 'immediately' after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine.
South Wales Argus
8 hours ago
- South Wales Argus
I tried a World War II cake recipe from Marguerite Patten
These often turn out wonderfully, and it got me thinking what it would be like to try a wartime recipe using the same ingredients that people would have been restricted to during rationing. Rationing was a system implemented to make sure everyone got their fair share of food during national shortages in wartime. This was exacerbated by enemy ships and submarines attacking imports of food, which caused a greater reliance on items produced in the UK. Marguerite Patten was one of the earliest celebrity chefs, presenting a popular BBC radio programme during World War Two, in which she shared recipes for cooking with wartime rations. Here she is demonstrating how to make an Easter cake back in 1950.#ThrowbackThursday — BBC Current Affairs (@BBC_CurrAff) April 9, 2020 Several foodstuffs, such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon, eggs and cheese, were rationed, which caused a great impact. After doing a bit of research for wartime cake recipes, I was recommended by my mum to check out recipes from Marguerite Patten. She was one of the earliest examples of a celebrity chef and became famous during World War II, where she shared recipes on BBC radio that could work within the limits of rationing. It sounded like the perfect thing to explore, and I found her recipe for a Vinegar Cake, which was a fruit cake that used vinegar instead of eggs. This can be seen in her book Feeding the Nation, and is notable for using vinegar instead of eggs as a main component. How to make a World War II-era light fruit cake Making the cake will not require too many ingredients (Image: Newsquest) In terms of ingredients for the fruit cake recipe you will need 6oz of self-raising flour 3oz of margarine 3oz of sugar 1/4 pint of milk 1 tablespoon of vinegar 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda 3-4oz of mixed dried fruit Meanwhile, for equipment, you will need: a decent-sized mixing bowl large basin scales sieve measuring jug a teaspoon a tablespoon larger spoon (for mixing) 7-inch baking tin Baking cakes is not something I do very often, so I made it with my Mum overseeing things to make sure I didn't mess up anywhere. The first step involves creaming the margarine and sugar together (Image: Newsquest) Firstly, we creamed the margarine and sugar together and made sure it was well-combined. After that, the recipe recommends pouring the milk, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda into a "large basin". It was quite a vague term, so we combined the elements into a large measuring jug as it would supposedly froth up quite a bit. The recipe involves 3-4 ounces of mixed fruit (Image: Newsquest) However, this didn't happen in practice, so any worries of creating a mess were quickly alleviated, at least. We then poured that mixture into the mixing bowl with the creamed margarine and sugar, before sifting the flour into it. After mixing that, we then added the dried fruit, which was a combination of raisins, peel and cherries. All the ingredients will eventually be mixed together into the bowl (Image: Newsquest) Finally, after briefly mixing together, we then poured it into a seven-inch baking tin. The recipe recommends flouring and greasing the tin, but if you have a cake case to hand, you can line the tin with that. All there is to do after that is to pop it in a "moderate oven" (approximately 170-180C) and bake it for an hour. The verdict Once the hour was up, I took the cake out of the oven and was pleased to see that, at least aesthetically, it had turned out quite well. The cake certainly looked the part coming out of the oven (Image: Newsquest) It had a nice golden-brown colour with bits of dried fruit popping through the outer layer. All that was left to do was to try it, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I'd seen from other people trying the recipe that it had turned out really crumbly, but in this case it held its shape perfectly. The cake had a light and fluffy texture (Image: Newsquest) Having it warm was certainly a bonus, and it had a delightfully fluffy and light texture. Recommended reading: It also wasn't overly sweet and balanced all the flavours remarkably well. Due to how relatively few ingredients this requires and how it doesn't take too long to make, I would highly recommend giving this a try. While rationing is, of course, something nobody ever wants to go back to or experience in the first place, it is somewhat comforting to know that with a bit of adjustment, people were still able to enjoy some treats like this.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
Youth homelessness in London 'a real crisis'
A record high of 13,231 people were recorded as sleeping rough in the capital in this year, a 10% increase on the previous year, according to recent number of people classed as living on the streets in London has increased by 27% in the last year too, according to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain).It is said to be the highest ever annual rise, equating to another 3,000 people making the streets their home. Youth homelessness is of particular concern, with 11% of those rough sleeping in the capital aged 25 and under, figures show. London Youth Hub, a pan-London youth emergency accommodation centre, said it had been able to keep most residents who had stayed there off the streets permanently - but it was struggling to keep up with demand. For one 24-year-old resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, his four-month stay at the hub has turned his life around after he had nowhere to go. Now coming to the end of his stay, the BBC caught up with him as he was on his way out to a viewing for a studio flat."Me and my mum were, constantly fighting. We had a broken relationship. So I couldn't live there anymore and I had to get out," he said."I stayed with friends for a period of time but I couldn't do that forever."Before he arrived at the hub, he was also dealing with grief from his recent father's death."I was struggling with the grieving process with my dad and they said that they could help me here with that."I found the hub via the council. I started just staying in my room but soon I made lots of friends."Now it feels good. I'm ready to take on the world and go out there and get to it and do whatever I can to stay afloat with the help I've got here. "My progression coach said I can always get in touch for support and so that's great."The hub, run by De Paul UK charity, provides psychotherapy sessions for the residents, as well as progression advisers to support them and help find long-term accommodation. 'A real crisis' "Our young people are often quite traumatised and have often been through a lot of stuff that they need to try and process so they can successfully move on with their lives," explains Luton Sinfield, the hub's manager."It's the only emergency accommodation for the whole of London dedicated to youth homelessness. "Everybody gets their own room, their own bathroom and then we work with them to help them move on. "The challenge is we haven't got enough spaces for all the people we need to accommodate, and that's really sad." Mr Sinfield added: "Part of the reason for that is the shortage of move-on accommodation is because of the housing crisis in London in terms of the general stock, places that are affordable access for young people and indeed support accommodation. That's a real crisis."We really want the government strategy to reflect this and to have a special chapter about youth homelessness because it is distinct and different and it needs a response that's credible nationally and supported by regional and local government."The total number of rough sleepers in 2025 is 63% more than 10 years government said it had increased funding for homelessness services by £233m this year, bringing its total expenditure to £1bn, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing added that the latest spending review protected "this record level of investment to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping beyond this financial year".
