I had the honour of knowing Councillor Dr Robert Francis Kinghorn for over 20 years. Whereas the general public will have known him or known of him as a Chiswick Riverside Conservative councillor and executive member of Hounslow Council, he was in fact a man of many parts whose interests and contribution ranged widely over many fields.However first of all he was a loving husband to Rosemary and a loving father to their two young sons James and Phillip.His strong political convictions were rooted in his strong Christian convictions and belief. He was a compassionate Conservative long before the term was invented.He was a kind, polite and witty man; an Englishman to the core but proud of his family's Scottish roots.He was not afraid to stand against the tide of political correctness and believed deeply in the need for the United Kingdom to remain independent of any European superstate.He had a passionate commitment to education at all levels and after many years as a opposition councillor,since May 2006 was the lead member of Education and Children on Hounslow Council's Executive able to influence Hounslow's schools, education policies and structures within the limitations imposed by Central Government.He was for many years the Chairman of the nationwide and very influential Conservative Transport Group and had a passionate interest in and encyclopedic knowledge of all matters relating to transport. Together with his wife Rosemary he wrote a book about the railways of Scotland and recently published one of his own about the Lost Railways of Northumberland.He restored and owned a 1948 double decker bus, a Lancia and a magnificent model railway.He played an important role in advising the Conservative Party nationally on transport matters.He lectured in Petroleum Geology at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London which is one of the world's leading institutions in its fields and acted as a careers adviser to its distiguished graduates and post graduates who can now be found all over the world seeking the oil and gas on whom so many billions of us depend.In addition to being a husband, a father, a councillor, an academic and Chairman of the Conservative Transport Group, Robert was also a fine churchman and has been for many years a member of the Parochial Church Council of St Nicholas with St Mary Magdalene, the historic parish church of Chiswick. In his ecclesiastical life and to his fellow parishioners at St Nicholas, Chiswick, Robert was always known as Francis having been also named after St Francis. This was something that was somewhat difficult for those of us who knew him both inside and outside church to remember at times! But it underlined his important Christian commitment.When Robert died so tragically in Strand on the Green last Wednesday, he was in fact one of the parish’s two churchwardens and had just completed the arduous responsibility of helping to guide the parish through the interregnum which followed the retirement of Reverend Father Prebendary Patrick Tuft at the end of 2006 and which has led to the institution of Rev. Father Simon Brandes as Vicar of Chiswick on 1st September 2007. He was also responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the parish website www.chiswickparishchurch.org.uk and did a tremendous amount of work for the parish in many, many ways. Rosemary, James and Phillip were all at church last Sunday; James serving as an acolyte as usual. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all at this time.
David Giles ● 6484d