Contact | Apr 12

Obituary: John Walkerdine MBE PPCIOB 1925-2012

John was born in Derby in 1925 and educated at Derby School, which during the war was evacuated to Ashover some distance north of Derby where a temporary school had been quickly built.

John was accepted for Sandhurst

where he underwent training and then on to Bovington in Dorset to train as a tank commander. He was posted to India and finally to Malaya and Singapore where he was involved with the War Crimes Commission. He finally left the army with the rank of major and joined his father in the family building business, Wm Walkerdine in Derby. He later moved to work in

Warwickshire and Somerset before returning to Derby to take over the family business in 1965, which he ran until its demise in the late 1980s. Until retirement he worked in London and lived in the Northamptonshire village of Yardley Hastings.

John joined the IOB in the 1960s and

immediately took an active part within the Nottingham Centre and the East Midlands region with a particular interest in education. He was instrumental in steering the CIOB to develop the Site Management Education Training Scheme (SMETS) – the development programme undertaken by many thousands of site managers over some 30 years. He was dedicated to construction

education, and following his presidency of the Institute he became chair of the Committee for Recognition of External Awards, taking the accreditation of university courses beyond the UK to the Far East, including Singapore and Hong Kong — an initiative that has continued to this day. He was appointed as President of the

Institute of Building in 1979, after which he led the bid for Royal Charter and the subsequent name change to the Chartered Institute of Building. John had become involved in the

Scouts as a young boy and after settling down to married life he started to get involved again which quickly developed to becoming Group Scout Leader, ADC, and finally Assistant County Commissioner as he moved around the country. In 1985 John was rewarded for his

contribution to construction and scouting with an MBE followed by an Honorary Doctorate in Technology at Bristol. From an early age John enjoyed being on water whether in rivers, the sea or on the canals. He saved one of James Brindley’s historic canalside warehouses from demolition, converting it into a canal museum, visitor centre, restaurant and marina at the inland port of Shardlow. John leaves three sons. The eldest

two, John and David, are chartered builders. He also leaves six grandchildren and one great grandchild.

EXETER

Devon members spend a night at the museum

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter

which runs next to the building. The walls were gradually moving and some of the structural cracks so wide, you could fit your arm through them. This contributed to the scheduled 62-week project becoming a 171-week project. A resin injection system was used to ensure ground stabilisation before further works to the structure continued. Exeter is steeped in history, therefore it was no surprise that while they were digging the lift shafts, Roman artefacts and the remains of a quarry were found, and the local archaeological team was called in before work could recommence. Due to its historic status, the contractors were

CIOB members and their families were recently invited to a private viewing of the £8.1m refurbishment of Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum. The museum has been undergoing refurbishment and redevelopment since December 2007 to bring the 1860s building and its facilities into the 21st century. Family members were free to explore the new displays and exhibitions, while CIOB members were taken on a tour of the building’s changes by Nigel Harris and Clive Hornsell, project manager and senior site manager respectively at BAM Construction. The project has involved major internal

refurbishments, as well as structural support due to parts of the museum falling into the Norman ditch

keen to reclaim several parts of the existing fabric which was then reintroduced into other parts of the building: in total BAM managed to reclaim and recycle approximately 10% of the materials. One of the most expensive elements of the project

was metalwork, which was a high specification plasma cut in Europe, and one of the hardest to source was the Russian Oak floorboards, seen throughout the galleries, which took a year to source due to the specification requirements of no knots being larger than 2mm. In all the BAM Construction teams created 80 new openings within the museum and received 2,035 variations on the job. The museum re-opened its doors last December

and averages 10,000 visitors a week. www.rammuseum.org.uk

Essex members get a grounding in foundations

Mark Hinton, a chief geotechnical engineer at Atkins, recently gave a brief oversight of different ground engineering techniques to an audience of 73 members and guests of the Essex Centre. Mark began by running through

the many products and testing that he had been involved in while in his previous role with Balfour Beatty. Different kinds of piling

techniques (rotary bored, CFA and precast) were explained, followed by different methods of ground improvement techniques. These include vibro stone columns, band drains and many more. Hinton also explained retaining walls and newer technology such as liquid soil. Many case studies were described, including The Shard and Heathrow Airport. Future technologies may include

“hollow piles” and pile re-use. The event also included a

debate and Hinton questioned procurement processes and whether the most common method was the best.

CIOB News

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