Asbestos-related disease has killed an electrical engineer whom served on the Royal Yacht Britannia and later repaired fork lift trucks.

Richard Rendell joined the navy as a boy seaman and served for a further 14 years after that. He trained in electronics and was with the Britannia for eight years.

He was discharged in 1964 and worked for several forklift truck firms, carrying out servicing, repair and maintenance work before he eventually set up his own company.

An investigation into his death showed that he was in good-health until May last year, when he suddenly developed a chesty cough and suffered from breathlessness.

The 77 year-old died 6 months later.

Mr. Rendell made a statement saying that he had been exposed to asbestos during his time in the navy and throughout his career afterwards.

After the inquest at Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner’s Court, where assistant deputy coroner Paul McCandless recorded a verdict of death due to industrial disease, Mrs Rendell said her husband was a “lovely man and a true gentleman”.

She said

“He was my carer and, before he was ill, he was never still”.

“We were only married for seven years but I was so proud to be his wife.”

Mr. Rendell left school at the age of 15 to join the navy, in his statement he said he would often find himself up against or climbing over asbestos lagged pipes.

In 1964, he became a senior engineer at forklift company Lansing Bagnall, in Basingstoke, and said he would be exposed to asbestos dust while servicing brake shoes.

In the statement, he said: “In fact, it went up my nose and all over me.”

He also said that he was exposed to asbestos when he worked for the Birmingham Forklift Truck Company and Bendigo Mitchell.

A post-mortem examination revealed Mr. Rendell died due to a malignant mesothelioma of the pleura – an asbestos-related cancer.

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