Kenneth joined F1 from Ardrossan Academy when his family moved to Wormit. Academically able and a keen sportsman, he was a member of the rugby and tennis teams, also enjoying golf and squash. Above all, as a member of the CCF, he looked forward to Friday parades. Another interest was membership of 34th Fife (1st Newport) Scouts, where in 1954 he
achieved the distinction of Queen’s Scout. On leaving school, he began studying Pure Science at Queen’s College in Dundee, then still part of the University of St Andrews.
His studies were interrupted by knee surgery. Once home after discharge, call-up papers for National Service awaited him. Soon realising that this was his bent he opted to join the Corps of Royal Engineers. Selected for officer training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, coming top Cadet of his Intake and entering Regular Service, he served two tours of duty in West Germany. He also partook in Arctic training on secondment to Norwegian Forces and completed two tours in Sarawak, one of two East Malaysian states on the landmass of Borneo during the ‘Confrontation’ with hostile Indonesia in the 1960s. It was during his second tour there that Kenneth sustained severe injuries, particularly to his head, putting an end to his promising army career.
After a lengthy recovery in the UK and medical discharge, Kenneth began civil engineering work on the M90. It was while working in Edinburgh that he met his wife Ketron. After their marriage, they set up home in London where Kenneth worked for five years. Their daughter Fiona (Class of 1991) was born there.
Returning to Scotland, the family settled in Invergowrie. A keen lifelong philatelist, Kenneth enjoyed bridge, was Treasurer of the local Conservative Association and served a term as member of the Old Boys’ Club Committee. When the Queen consented to the Malaysian Government awarding medals to those who had taken part in the ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia in the 1960s, in 2010 he was invested in Perth with the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal, surprising the Malaysian Defence Attaché on being greeted and thanked in his own language. Wherever he went, Kenneth attracted people to him, learning the language in each foreign posting, frequently recognised in Britain and further afield by former military colleagues whom he may not have seen since leaving the army.
24 years ago, Kenneth and Ketron moved to St Andrews where he was a President of the Probus Club and an Elder of Hope Park Church. Both were volunteer guides at Falkland Palace and Hill of Tarvit Mansion-house.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Dementia, Kenneth spent the last six years of his life as a resident of Glasgow Erskine Care Home, dying of Covid-19 in November 2020. He is survived by Ketron, his daughter Fiona, granddaughters Grace and Maisie, brother Dair and sister Maureen (Class of 1966).
Alan Robertson, Class of 1953
Friend of Kenneth
