In Memory of Dr Anne Spoerry

Anne Spoerry: A Life
A Day to Remember: A Personal Account of Anne Spoerry's Funeral
Tributes to a Pioneer Flying Doctor

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Anne Spoerry
This article was adpated from obituaries in The Independent and The Times newspapers in the UK.

No one meeting Anne Spoerry - physician, aviator and adventurer - could forget her two greatest attributes: a heart of gold and the Big Voice. This she developed specially, she said, "to get things done".
In Kenya in 1964, Spoerry put both characteristics to good use when she offered her medical experience and a Piper Cherokee 235 to what was then known as the Flying Doctor Service. She had learned to fly just the year before, at the age of 45, and worked tirelessly for AMREF for the next 20 years.
Her regular schedule included medical training and immunisation programmes as well as regular flying-doctor clinics held under the shady wing of her little plane. She covered all of Kenya’s northern district and the area around Lamu as far as the Somali border. It was Anne Spoerry’s dedication, enthusiasm, financial support and Big Voice that helped make AMREF (as the Flying Doctors’ Service is now known) the successful organisation it is today.
Anne Spoerry’s commitment to medical service grew, perhaps, from the legacy of her young life. Born to a Swiss-Alsatian family in 1918, she began studying medicine in Paris in 1938. When the Nazis occupied France she became active in the Resistance and ran a safe house for operatives of the Special Operations Executive sent from London. Her brother François was also involved.
Anne and François were arrested within days of each other in 1943. After interrogation by the Gestapo, Anne spent five months in the notorious Fresnes Prison and was then sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Using the scanty facilities there she did her best to use her medical knowledge to help her fellow inmates.
When the camp was liberated by the Allies in April 1945, Anne was reduced to almost a skeleton and needed prolonged convalescence to restore her physical and mental well-being. As soon as she was able, though, she returned to her medical studies in Paris and then obtained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine in Basle, Switzerland.
In 1948 Anne went to Aden to work with an old family friend, but soon gravitated to Kenya and became determined to stay there. Despite the reluctance of the government medical service to employ a woman doctor in 1950, she soon learned that the farmers at Ol Kalou, in the Rift Valley, needed a full-time doctor. For 14 years she covered the 60 farms in a little Peugeot station wagon with the company of a bull terrier named Winny after Winston Churchill. She also took medical care to the local Kikuyu people and taught them about the role of hygiene in good health. At the same time she farmed the land around her property.
Anne lived through the Mau Mau at Ol Kalou, seeing on a smaller scale grisly scenes similar to those she had witnessed in occupied Europe, and caring for whites and Africans alike. In the midst of this she also found time to start Ol Kalou’s first troop of Girl Guides. But, when Kenya became independent, her farm and all others in the area were compulsorily purchased for redistribution under the "Million-Acre" scheme.
Already taking flying lessons North of Ol Kalou in Subukia, she bought another farm there where she began spending weekends. During the week she flew to Nairobi, where British plastic surgeon Michael Wood invited her to join the newly established Flying Doctors of East Africa, later renamed AMREF (African Medical Research Foundation).
Anne’s first job was to start up regular flying clinics in the northeast of Kenya. Every five weeks she made a long circuit, treating spear and gunshot wounds and infections diseases. She also practised preventive medicine, giving advice on family planning and immunisation. Over an area covering tens of thousands of square miles, Anne Spoerry became know as "Mama Daktari" - the Swahili words for "Mother Doctor".
Anne flew for AMREF until last year, when she was 80. She never married, "what sort of man would have followed me in my peregrinations?" she would ask. Her brother François remained her closest friend; he died three weeks ago. Anne made up for the absence of family with a huge collection of loving friends, old and young. One of them, George Fegan, donated the burial plot he had carefully chosen for himself years ago on the Indian Ocean island of Lamu for his friend Anne Spoerry’s mortal remains. "Mama Daktari" was also mourned by the thousands of those she had served.

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Anne Spoerry’s extraordinary funeral began in her garden at home in Muthaiga. Early morning light and bougainvillea flowers framed the little platform on which her coffin lay. AMREF pilot Jim Heather-Hayes and his team carried her through the house and into a waiting car to begin the journey to her final resting place.
The funeral service was held in the place most fitting for this pioneer flying doctor - an aeroplane hangar. Filled with people, the hangar had been decorated with exotic leaves and brilliant red flowers. Anne’s plane, known as Zulu Tango, stood alone by the door.
When the lovely service ended Anne was carried to the plane and covered in family flowers. Sunlight burst in as the door of the hangar opened - someone said it seemed as if the doors of heaven had opened for her.
The pilots pushed the plane into the sunshine with her doors still open, only closing them when they started the engine. The plane took off and Jim flew over the hangars with the plane’s wheels almost touching the roofs in one last goodbye.
Ten minutes later Anne’s family and 20 of the AMREF staff and friends left in two special flights to the burial site in a remote area of northern Kenya. We arrived at the port of Manda in time to welcome here there, but we didn’t need to as all the local dignitaries were already there to greet her.
Five little boats waited at the jetty. Filled with Anne’s family, friends and flowers, they set off for Shela, Anne’s final island resting place. The men of the village, mostly dressed in white, received her and carried her gently to the veranda of her house. Village women then paid tribute by laying flowers.
The final funeral procession began as the men carried her out along the beach to the tiny cemetery. We scrambled up the steep steps… so many people - villagers and visitors from Nairobi. But there was no pushing, just a feeling of respect for the hour.
We all waited with the noise of the sea breaking the silence until Zulu Tango flew past. Anne was then finally and gently let down into her marble tomb, a gift from her old friend George Fegan. We could almost hear her saying "get on with it"… "why not do it this way…" as the men pushed and heaved to get the lid of the tomb in place without cracking the white stone.
As Anne’s family left and the District Commissioner spoke in Swahili, we arranged a collection of flowers on the tomb. The DC talked about how Anne had helped anyone at any time of day or night. She never asked for anything, so they were so happy that they could give her this place for her rest - forever.
It was so difficult to leave the place that had become a bed of flowers. Seeing the brilliant colours against the stark white of the tomb, I felt this was the final goodbye. That night we flew back to Nairobi into a golden sunset with our hearts full of the day’s happenings, grateful to have been a part of it.

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Tributes to Anne Spoerry

AMREF Pilot, Tom Rees

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