23.09.2015

Kenneth Barnes 1934-2015

We have received the sad news that Ken Barnes, managing director of UK based Grayston Crane Hire in the 1970s and 1980s passed away yesterday aged 81. While he had not been in the best of health this past year his passing was sudden and unexpected.
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Ken Barnes in 1982

Born to a butcher in Wilmslow, Cheshire, Barnes started out as a fitter with Wilmslow Plant Hire in Stockport which at the time ran a few Ruston Bucyrus 22-RB crawler crane/draglines. In 1964 he joined the Grayston Plant Hire depot in Droylsden, when it started moving crawler cranes into the region from Kent. Then in 1966 he moved to New Zealand to look after a company owned by one of his relatives – Percy Hammond.

A few years later he was back in the UK and back with Grayston, managing its Darlaston depot near Birmingham. Grayston was acquired by BET in 1968 and Barnes quickly moved up the management ladder.

In 1982 he was appointed managing director of the entire Grayston Crane & Plant Hire division, one of two divisions along with Scaffolding. As part of BET the company was merged with the group's other crane hire business JD White to become Grayston White in 1984. By then Barnes had gone to live in South Africa to run the group's South African crane business Grayston Cranes South Africa and joined the Grayston Holdings board of directors.

After selling the business to Harold Johnson he headed back to UK, shortly after BET had added GW.Sparrow & Sons to its growing crane hire portfolio, forming Grayston White and Sparrow.
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Ken and Esther Barnes

He then became second in command to BET Plant Services chairman Bill Boulton as chairman of the BET offshore and international plant companies, as they built an empire through acquisitions. Scott Greenham was the last major crane and access purchase in 1987, which also made them a serious player in the powered access business.

Barnes and Boulton both retired in 1993 and played a significant role in the acquisition of Lorne Stewart from BET by the Rezayat family, a partner with Sparrows in the Middle East. Boulton was chairman of Lorne Stewart with Barnes as a director. He eventually retired around 1995.

His wife Esther, originally from Rathdrum, Ireland, died in September 2008 aged 77 – he leaves behind three children - Tricia and twins Stephen and Shirley, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

We now understand that the funeral will take place on Thursday 15th Oct 11:45 am at Randall's Park Crematorium, Leatherhead. KT22 0AG.