|
|
 |
| |
Tributes to happy and courageous Michael
MICHAEL Larkin, who lived for many years in Primrose Hill, has died aged 87.
He was born in Ireland In 1918 and travelled to England to work as a young man.
He was known around the Primrose Hill area for his happy persona and overcoming his disability – he was registered blind.
During the war he worked in an armaments and plane production factory but in 1942, after a bad fall, he lost his sight. But he still continued to work and was eventually promoted to the level of inspector at a factory in Surrey called Crawley Metal Production Ltd.
His job as an inspector was partly helped by his disability. He was assigned to test the accuracy of metal components, and, using Braille marked micrometers and other measuring instruments, he would feel the edges of metalwork and check they were accurate.
This would often be to 1/10,000 of an inch – a feat he said was made easier by his inability to see, as he was not distracted by the goings on around him on the factory floor.
He married his wife Claris in 1949. He outlived her. She had a long illness, during which he took over the role of caring for her, taking charge of the cooking, cleaning and other household chores while still working.
He would also be seen regularly taking her out for fresh air up to Primrose Hill in her wheel chair, with her giving him directions.
Friends remember his bravery: He was mugged several times but these acts saddened him, rather than angered him. And when his flat was broken into, he knew the intruder was there by “a change in the air”, and he told his friends he even managed to bite the intruder on the ankle before he escaped.
He was a regular in many pubs and restaurants around his home.
He would often visit the Albert pub for lunch, and was also well-known in the Dublin Castle, and stallholders at Inverness Street would look forward to his visits. He also managed to memorise every shop in Camden High street, a feat that friends marvelled at when he was taken shopping, he would be able to say exactly where each shop he wanted to visit was.
As his health deteriorated and he suffered several falls – one of which resulted in a broken hip – he reluctantly gave up his home in Fitzroy Road and moved into residential accommodation, where he was still visited regularly by his many friends.
He is remembered by them as a raconteur, who was keenly interested in current affairs, and constantly has a personal radio tuned in to keep him abreast of world events.
Dan Carrier
|
 |
|
|
|
