Keith Frederick Larkin was born to Doris and Frederick Larkin in March 1943. Growing up in South West London, he had one younger brother, Graham, and they both attended Emanuel School.
At A level he studied physics, pure mathematics, and applied mathematics. He was offered a place at Oxford to study mathematics, which he turned down for the opportunity to go to the University of Bristol to study civil engineering.
On leaving university in 1965, he joined Mott, Hay, and Anderson and worked for them for eighteen years. Projects included working on the Victoria Line, the Edinburgh Eastern Link Road, the shipment of stones for old London Bridge so it could be sent out to America, and the second Dartford Tunnel where he became the main resident engineer supervising the tunnel’s construction through to completion.
In 1968 he married Wendy Rickman, a local girl from Streatham. Living in East Grinstead, they had three sons – Mark, Robyn and Christopher.
In the early 1980s, he moved his family out to Hong Kong to work for The MTR underground system as the senior resident engineer. This on site job meant working every day next to both a sewage plant and an outdoor fish market so it should come as no surprise that this was also around the time he lost all sense of smell, which never returned.
After a 4-year period with MTR, he re-joined his old company, MHA, in their Hong Kong Division. He was the Chief Resident Engineer on a number of projects culminating in the Lantau fixed crossing Tsing Ma bridge, which to this day is the largest suspension bridge in the world to carry both road and rail traffic.
After returning to the UK in 1995 he was seconded to the Heathrow Express team as on site supervising Civil Engineer, where, if we are to believe his performance review, he was dependable, dedicated, articulate, coped well under pressure and, most importantly, restored faith in a troubled project. This earned him high praise from all.
In the late nineties he took early retirement and spent his time building up a small business as a local handy man in Chippenham, as well as buildings advisor to his local church. He was a fun-loving, kind, and friendly man who will be sorely missed by all.
Martin Rickman, friend.
