Zeebrugge Herald of Free Enterprise disaster remembered . . .

The BBC News reminded us today that it is 30 years since the terrible tragedy of the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise off Zeebrugge. We lost two dear pals from MOMA here in Oxford in Alison and Francis who I think of often. I was moved to discover Mrs De Rohan was one of the parents interviewed with moving remembrance of her daughter and son-in-law who were simply two of the nicest people I ever met. 

Thirty years ago a ferry left dock in Belgium. Within minutes the ship was in trouble and in just 90 seconds it capsized, killing 193 people. Here is the story of the Herald of Free Enterprise - told by those whose lives were forever affected by the disaster. 

One young couple who died were Alison and Francis Gaillard. They had been married for less than two years.
Alison's mother, Margaret De Rohan, was in Australia when the Herald tipped over - she had not known her daughter and son-in-law were on board until her husband mentioned they had gone on a day trip to Belgium.
The De Rohans flew home, and Mrs De Rohan said she was convinced she would find her daughter alive in hospital.
"I had the strongest feeling in the world I'd find Alison, and that she'd be so badly injured she wouldn't be able to tell people who she was," she said. "It's an awful thing for a mother to hope, that her daughter would be so badly hurt.
"We went to Belgium, to the hospital. We were told there were 16 unidentified bodies but Ali and Francis weren't among them. My husband insisted on going to the morgue to see for himself. He came back, kissed me on the cheek, and said 'Ali's there. Francis isn't'.
"And all our hopes were dashed. I was right, we'd found her in a hospital. I didn't realise it would be in the morgue. Francis was still on the Herald of Free Enterprise until it was refloated. It took about three and a half weeks before we got his body back. They're buried together in Windsor cemetery.
"You know, they were a young, idealistic couple. If they'd found something they really, really believed in, I could just imagine they'd sacrifice their lives for it. But not this."

I was unable to go to the memorial but understand the family and friends planted a tree which I always find most moving in terms of memorials. I had cause today to shed a tear and reflect upon my memories of them. I recall them both clearly and what fun we had when Ali worked as a volunteer at MOMA in Oxford and she was largely responsible for the cataloguing of a significant library of art catalogues and documents for the MOMA archive. I have no idea what happened to that but feel strangely it stood as testament to her unerring eye for detail and enthusiastic intelligence. Francis shared a sense of humour amongst the gang of us that hung out together during their time there. I recall a conversation with them once in which they had seen some of my own artwork and Francis jokingly suggested I might make serious money in the Summer in Oxford drawing local views, Christchurch Cathedral, Magdalen College etc in charcoal. Set up sitting on the street in a folding chair and have prepared several sketches which Francis thought I might make say £10 each [then] and I did some loose charcoal sketches from slides I bought to make him laugh and never got to show them to them both. I was going to post them here but cannot find them for the moment. I know they are there somewhere and I think of them along with the joy and fun of Ali and Francis that their friends and I shared whilst at MOMA. I miss them and think of them as the  years pass by and was shocked to find it had been 30 years . . . . I liked them and I do not believe it is possible to imagine two nicer people.