John Edward Larking (2 Nov 1942 - 6 Feb 2026)

John Edward Larking
2nd November 1942 - 6th February 2026
John was born in Erith, the eldest child of George and Grace. His younger brother Stephen sadly died aged six. John met Anne when he was fourteen and she was twelve. They both went to Erith Grammar School. They married on 3rd October 1964. They have two children, Deborah and Stuart. Deborah was married to Jeff for nearly thirty years. She is now married to Jeremy, so John had the blessing of two son-in-laws. Stuart has lived in America for over 30 years and is married to Lisa. John has three granddaughters, Rachel, Emily and Lauren, and a great grandson, Leo (who knew John as GG). John was devoted to Anne. He would do anything for his family.
John started his working life at BOCM in Erith. He was a laboratory assistant testing cattle food. He then worked for STC which became ITT at Footscray Whilst working at STC he studied for further qualifications in maths and physics at college in Lewisham. John was heavily involved in the early development and use of silicon chip. This included developing underwater sub repeaters in telephone cables facilitating international communications. John worked at ITT until 1982.
In 1982 there was a complete career change. John resigned from ITT and bought a greengrocers shop, Quality Fruiterers, in Petts Wood. In true John style, there were plenty of systems, procedures and spreadsheets. It was very successful, often with queues out the door, but involved very early mornings driving up to Spitalfields market in a bright yellow van “the yellow peril” and working flat out six days a week. It was a bit of a relief for Anne, Deborah and Stuart when, in 1985, Safeways opened up along the road and the decision was made to sell up rather than try and compete.
After greengrocery John decided to return to his career in technology. He joined International Rectifier (IR) in Oxted as a line supervisor. It wasn’t long before his talent and passion for making things happen and striving for continuous improvement led to him being appointed as General Manager running the whole factory. IR was an American company but truly international, and during his time with them John and Anne travelled widely including trips to China, Japan and India. They also lived in America in Fallbrook, California, for a couple of years (1997 to 1999) whilst John was Vice President of Research and Development.
One of John’s proudest achievements was heading up the IRGB team that was awarded the Queens Award for Export Achievement in 1992.
John retired from IR in 2006 after twenty years.
Aside from a very fulfilling work life, John was never one to sit still. In the 1960’s he was treasurer of Erith Playhouse. John and Anne were more often back of house rather than treading the boards, although there is a photo somewhere of John as an elf in tights!
In the 1980’s John spent many hours supporting Stuart at Dartford Harriers Athletics Club. Track and field events results would be meticulously recorded.
Despite a very busy work life, John would always find something to be done at home. This often involved manual labour in the garden. He would come inside and be completely oblivious to various cuts bleeding, such was his absorption with the task!
In 2014, Deborah set up Hive Hope foodbank in Northfleet. John and Anne were involved from the very start. John could always be relied upon to lift far too many boxes at a time. He would also spend hours analysing data and providing projections. He was volunteering right up until two weeks before he died. Even when dementia had really started to take its toll, he would wipe the pick lists, crush the cardboard and put away the tables.
John was a truly special man. He will be greatly missed.