I received some very sad news - Archie Paice has passed away yesterday.
He made an awkward fall on the pavement in Lisbon which resulted in a severe head injury, he passed a few hours later in hospital.
Archie is survived by his longtime partner Maria and his two sons Steve and Kevin, his eldest son Nick having died in February, 2014.(viewtopic.php?f=35&t=110556)
Archie had just returned from Brazil to Portugal where he was going to pick up his motorhome from its winter storage, and drive all the way back to Pickering.
This probably provides a very good description of Archie.
A life-long traveller, he started off in the merchant marine in 1953 and spent the next 15 years roaming the world in various jobs on ships, I think he ended up a chief caterer.
In the late sixties with the arrival of his sons he decided he would no longer want to be away for Months on end and took to the road instead, initially in a day-cab 110. I don’t recall all of his destinations but he did a fair amount of Greece and Italy, later starting his own haulage business where he ran a small fleet of 2800/3300 DAFs, with his sons involved as drivers at various times.
His late wife’s declining health put an end to his long-distance driving career towards the late 90s.
I may have the odd year wrong but this is more or less the journey of his life.
Personally I established contact with Archie through TN and we finally met in person in São Paulo/Brazil in January 2011, along with his partner Maria - a lovely person too. We had a cracking time together.
Archie and Maria travelled the world for a number of years (all the way to New Zealand and other such far away destinations), we narrowly missed each other in Thailand early in 2012. We subsequently met up again in Aug 2012 at the Pickering Steam rally where I had the pleasure of introducing him to my father. Here are some pictures with Archie on that memorable day.
He had a good 30 minutes’ - hilarious - banter with the owner of this steam-powered Foden
With Maria to his left and my dad.
We had a lot of fun commenting this posting on one of the engines 
I last met Archie in Sept 2015 on the way back from the Northumberland Truck run. I am so glad at this opportunity NOT missed. I parked my 142 right up his driveway (sadly I have no pictures) and we once again had a cracking time together, before proceeding on to York then to Hull to catch the ferry back to Zeebrugge.
I will remember Archie as an extremely well-travelled, distinguished gentleman. He was a generous man who also possessed a quick wit and a huge sense of humour.
To conclude, I am sharing a PM I received from his son Steve Paice earlier this morning:
Thanks kindly for them Dave.
If you are posting anything on TN, please pass on my thanks to all his Friends for the times shared and chats on TN; the travelling and trucking lifestyle was in his blood and he was still enjoying that lifestyle until the day he died…
He truly valued those friendships, he loved the humour the banter and the sense of being part of that community…
Steve
Steve has said it all really…
Rest in peace Archie.
You will be missed.
Archie Paice - Dec 25th, 1938 - March 16th, 2016
