Tributes paid to honeymoon couple killed in Uganda
Friends have paid tribute to a couple killed on their honeymoon alongside their guide in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The couple have been named locally as David and Celia Barlow, from Hampstead Norreys, near Newbury in Berkshire.
The village’s cricket club said they will be “desperately missed” while the parish council called Mr Barlow a “pillar of the community”.
Uganda’s police said their vehicle was set alight after they were killed.
Richard Davies, church warden at St Mary’s Church in Hampstead Norreys, said the news was “incomprehensible”.
“We wake today with a heavy heart, and the deepest sorrow to hear the devastating news of the death of Dave and Celia Barlow,” Mr Davies said. “Words cannot express how to react to this dreadful news.”
Hampstead Norreys Parish Council described Mr Barlow as an “exceptional chairman” who served the council for more than a decade.
“He was a pillar of the community, always prioritising their needs,” it said.
Hampstead Norreys Cricket Club also paid tribute to the couple, affectionately describing Mr Barlow as “Lord Barlow”.
“He was, at the time this incident occurred, with the most important person in his life, a woman who we all knew so well, as Dave was so proud to share all of Celia’s achievements. She too was an amazing human being, who will be desperately missed,” it said.
Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Ugandan High Commission in the UK would provide support to the families of the murdered couple.
Police said joint forces were pursuing suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group, an IS-linked Islamist group which traces its roots to Uganda but operates mainly in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
—BBC
