hi david ,re gerry weelan he did buy a pub in irelandand lived their for a few years before selling up. he then went back packing in south america for a few years on his own. He returned to the uk in the late nineties and worked for a while with jj smith of faversham running to romania and bulgi., i heard that he later worked for a short time with ralph davis ( as you know he was an old friend of alan warners). he later married a south american girl (i think she was peruvian) and they settled in spain where they had a son together .gerry then took ill with cancer and his wife brought him back to the uk where he died last year .he was laid to rest at feering in essex .i think his widow and son live with his aunt in feering. he was certainly one of the great personalities of the middle east run, you could hear him long before you saw him.R.I.P.
hey dave …would that be mickey fitzell…by any chance…we was on astrans at the same time…heres another name…mick hawkins…we was on lawrabian freight together …had to rescue him and nurse him cos of his gout…even had to take him to a yugo hospital whilst staying at the national…
what about johny spiller (the baron)
as for john ellingham …had a few beers with him …and what about his sidekick kemal…you`ve certainly jogged the old memory box matey…
M&C Jamie. Sorry mate I missed this when you first posted it. Thank you for that welcome though very sad news about Gerry. I had last heard from him in the late 90’s when he phoned out of the blue. He wanted to come to Mallorca with the lady but in the end he could not because she did not have a visa. Never heard from him again. So sorry to hear that he died - RIP as you say.
truckyboy. Mickey Fitzell it was indeed. He did not work for Astran as such but for J&T who were subbies. Mick Hawkins! I had clean forgotten about Mick and his gout.
John Ellingham. What a boy that was! Kemal was, I think, even a partner in the Bosphourus Express and was certainly responsible for the ‘Eastern’ end of the job.
You worked for Lawrabian did you? Good old days!
david
Hi Dave…yes i worked for Lawrabian freight …and when roy sold out to the bulgarians…i had my own motor then …and was working for fred topham who was running the firm then for the bgs.....after 6 months roy started up again and we all transferred back to roy leaving the bgs with no work and they eventually folded…roy had a relative who worked in fords…and supplied him with a lot of the work to turkey… for the turk car industry…
M&C Jamie:
jj smith of faversham running to romania and bulgi.
anyone know if he’s still on the scene or did he finally go off to cyprus? great supplier of essential sundries for cost conscious owner drivers 
and not a man to even THINK about crossing 