Lymington fire crew to join final salute to jovial former station officer Martin

LYMINGTON firemen will turn out for a final salute to former station officer Martin King when his funeral takes place at New Forest Crematorium.

Mr King, a retained fireman for 30 years, builder and plumber, long-serving Freemason and vintage motorcycle enthusiast, died aged 77 after a short illness.

One of six brothers and sisters brought up in a farming family where farms had no mains electricity and water came from a well, Martin had lived in Birmingham, Devon and Somerset – where he was head boy despite numerous school changes – before his father Frank got a job as draughtsman and planner with Lymington town hall and settled in Pennington with Martin and sister Julie.

When Martin moved to Pennington he began courting with Avril Andress, and they married in 1964.

Son Graham recalled: “Dad’s first job was a forecourt attendant at the garage in Old Milton Road where he took great pleasure in chatting with the Rickman brothers when they came in for petrol before they went off to scramble meetings.

“He always liked motorbikes and the highlight of his year was taking himself off to the Netley Marsh Steam Fair.”

After this job, Martin worked for a builder and served as an apprentice plumber before eventually setting up a building business the King Brothers with brother Rodney. They first built a pair of bungalows in Elm Avenue, Pennington, one of which Martin’s wife and children eventually moved into. Martin also built two large four-bedroom houses in Southampton Road, Lymington. When Rod moved away Martin continued with plumbing and general building work, apart from a stint fitting out yachts at Jeremy Rogers’ boatyard, with the flexibility that allowed him to work as a part-time fireman.

Graham described his father as: “A first class builder who was very strong-willed but jovial, who loved banter and leg-pulling, meeting up with other dog walkers in the mornings and also playing bowls for the Lymington fire station team.”

The salute by the Lymington firemen, who will be bringing their fire and rescue appliance to the service, reflects Martin’s long association with the fire service, which started when he signed up as a retained fireman in 1971. He became a station officer in charge in 1987 and continued until compulsory retirement aged 55 in 2001, when he received his 30-year long service certificate and Hampshire’s first new meritorious service medal.

His skills and love for machinery came into their own when he rescued one of the old Lymington TK Bedford fire engines which had been decommissioned, sold off and fallen into disrepair.

Graham said: “He parked it in the spare bay at the fire station, restored it and exhibited it for 10 years.”

He took it to rallies including the Netley Marsh and used it for his daughter Jacqueline’s wedding. He also restored a horse-drawn Shand Mason fire steam pump at the fire station. It was later re-homed at Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.

He leaves his wife of 60 years Avril, with whom he celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in January, son Graham, daughter Jacqueline and five grandchildren. Martin and Avril’s youngest daughter, Andrea, sadly died of cancer aged just 34 in 2003.

The funeral on 6th June is at 1pm at the New Forest Crematorium on Stem Lane, New Milton. This was appropriate, Graham said, because of its close proximity to Sammy Miller’s Motorcycle Museum and the Stem Lane industrial estate, where the Rickman brothers had their motorcycle factory in his younger days.

Donations in Martin’s memory, to Fire Fighters Charity and/or Blood Cancer UK can be made here.