He gained his BSc Degree in 1971 at the end of six years with consulting engineers Nachshen Crofts and Leggatt. He then joined Mott MacDonald and was involved in the design of building infrastructure, sea defences, roads and became a Section Engineer on the 2nd Dartford Tunnel.

From there he moved to civil engineering contractor, John Mowlem, where he worked for twelve years on a range of dock and harbour works, roads, sewers, rail works and tunnels rising to site agent for the Kessingland Bypass (Norfolk) and assisting with numerous tenders for dock works and tunnels. The tunnels included cooling water outfall tunnels at Redcar and compressed air working in tunnels in London’s docklands.

Joining Pemberwell Services Ltd in 1988 he was first seconded to Channel Tunnel where he undertook a review of safety measures and training. Contemporaneously he assisted groundworks contractor Sugrue Ltd with responsibility for method design and safety of excavations and temporary works in city areas.

From there he was seconded to the London Underground Jubilee Line construction team for the duration of the project. Here he initially provided support to London Underground for the project Parliamentary Report. He then went on to lead the programme management for the west section and gained responsibility for delivery of Southwark Station, crucial to the opening of Phase 1.

Denis’s diligent research into historical archives at the ICE uncovered serious difficulties and obstructions encountered during construction of the City and South London tube (now the Northern Line) at London Bridge, which lead to important changes to the layout of the Jubilee Line at this complex interchange.

In 1998 with the retirement of the owners of Pemberwell he, and the then company secretary, took over the running of the consultancy and staff procurement business. He continued his project work for various clients particularly London Underground. In 2002 he was seconded full time to London Underground Engineering Directorate where he participated in a range of activities leading to his appointment in 2005 as Project Assurance Engineer for three major projects viz. White City Development, the East London Line Extension and Stratford Station Development.

A senior colleague of Denis’s in LU writes: “Each of these projects has a number of powerful stakeholders and are valued in hundreds of millions of pounds. This seemed to be just the sort of challenge Denis excelled in. His diary was generally crowded but he had that special knack of identifying priorities whilst finding the time to assist those colleagues that called for help”.

There were three parts to the White City Project: The new stabling for Central Line Trains under the new shopping centre; the works at Shepherds Bush station; and the new station at Wood Lane. Denis played a pivotal role in meeting the delivery dates for bringing the new stabling sidings into use. The works at Shepherds Bush are in construction where the below ground tunnelling works were of particular interest to Denis because of their technical complexity. The new elevated station at Wood Lane on the Hammersmith & City Line is in the early stages of construction.

The East London Line owes a lot to Denis’s diligent attention to detail and interpretation of assurance requirements between Network Rail and London Underground standards. This was against a background of changing stakeholders as the project moved from Strategic Rail Authority through Network Rail to Transport for London sponsorship and from London Underground being the operator to this role being given to the concessionaire London Overground Rail Operations Ltd.

Additionally the law changed in 2006 from ROTS to ROGS requiring London Underground to be self-assuring. Denis took on the task of turning theory into practice and in educating his colleagues on what they needed to do differently to stay within the law. His favourite method of resolving a difference of opinion was to ask, “what would the man in the curly wig say?”.

Stratford station redevelopment was equally demanding but at an earlier stage in the planning.

There is no doubt that Denis made a valuable contribution to the confidence with which London Underground can deliver its major projects.

Denis remained a co-director and owner of Pemberwell during his secondment to London Underground continuing to provide advisory services and experienced staff secondment to clients.

Outside his busy working life Denis was an active member of his church in Rayleigh. He played an important role in local youth activities, played squash on a regular basis and enjoyed holidays with his wife and family in far-flung parts of the world, which often involved some voluntary work.

Denis was a well respected, and likeable man, and will be sorely missed by his many friends and colleagues in the industry. We send our sincere condolences to his wife, Sue, and their family.