Laurence Keith Dobson (Xt, 1966)

Keith Dobson, son of the late Major A H G Dobson (Xt, 1929) and brother of Mark Dobson (Xt, 1964), died on 6 December 2025, aged 77.

The following tribute has been provided by Keith’s brother, Mark.

Laurence Keith Dobson, known to all by his second name Keith, was born in Germany on 5 April 1948, the second son of Major A H G Dobson (Xt, 1929) and great-great-grandson of Rev. William Dobson, the second Principal of Cheltenham College (1845-59).

After leaving College with a handful of O-levels and A-levels, and before commencing a bachelor's degree course in Civil Engineering at Cardiff University, Keith spent 15 weeks at sea on the sail training schooner Sir Winston Churchill – an experience which may have given him an appetite for foreign travel but probably put him off sea travel for life as he suffered badly from sea-sickness for much of the trip.

Whilst at University he joined the Air Training Corps and accumulated quite a few hours in the air but, with a degree in Civil Engineering in his pocket, he decided to take a more comfortable seat in the back of the plane and leave the flying to the professionals. During the course of his life he visited, according to his own records, 43 separate countries, both for work purposes and for leisure. These included such places as Libya, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Namibia and China, to name just a few at random.

Keith's career centred around the manufacture and maintenance of large civil engineering projects around the world, mainly involving the construction of offshore oil rigs and aluminium smelters. Since he was principally employed by a Canadian company he eventually settled in that country, near their headquarters in Montreal.

Keith passed away peacefully in a hospice in Dorval on 5 December 2025.