Peter Leonard Coxhead (9 Mar 1929 - 14 Jan 2018)

PETER COXHEAD

Peter was born 9th March 1929 in Catford.

Professionally he was a structural engineer and a full member of the Institute of Structural engineers. He excelled at mathematics at school. However, he was the son of a master tailor, Leonard. During the war Peter stayed in London with his mother and an uncle and was not evacuated. His father Len served with the Royal Air Force all over the middle east (Egypt, Palestine, Iran, Iraq and particularly Cyprus) working on early Radar. Coincidentally during the war his mother Violet worked for a while at the Southern Railway at Woking station in the wooden huts by what is now adjacent to the Oriental Road car park.

Peter had to do National Service with the Royal Engineers. This was deferred for two years as he was on a training program for draftsmen. Peter never talked about National Service and it is assumed he detested the experience. Peter was a Rover Scout, and after National Service was Assistant Scout Master for the 34th Beckenham Scout Troop.

Peter met Maureen Skelton whilst working at the Merton Abbey Irons Works in Mitcham run by T.W. Palmer (Constructional Engineers). Indeed, there is a picture of Peter at the forefront working in the Palmer’s Drawing office on the web-site giving the history of Palmers. He then worked for Dawnays and then onto to work for E J Cook a subsidiary of Richard Costain for 23 years. Peter was engaged to Maureen in 1951 and they married in 1953. During his career he undertook jobs throughout the United Kingdom and often travelled abroad, e.g. Eindoven, Brussels (spark plug factory), Milan, East Berlin and Dresden (the later two were behind the iron curtain at the time).

In May 1957 Peter and Maureen moved to Abbey Close in Pyrford and they remained there until the end.

Peter left Costains in 1984 to start a business, The Pyrford Design Partnership, with offices in Chobham. When his partner, Mr. Eddie Whitehorn, retired, Peter continued to work on his own account well into his 80s. ……………..

Peter’s vocational interests in life were photography (he used to develop his own back and white prints), gardening and DIY. Costains owned a sports ground in New Malden and in the 1960s he used to play tennis and was a member of the tug-of-war team for E J Cook.

Peter and Maureen took many holidays with their two children, Mark and Nicholas, throughout the UK. Moreover, they took many holidays abroad including Austria, Davos, a train trip completely across Canada, the USA (Peter and Maureen were in New York on 11th September 2001, the day of the Twin Towers world changing event), Spain and South Africa.