John Laverick

John Laverick is a renowned canal expert and has spent his entire and varied engineering career in what might be described as a ‘watery environment’.

Beginning in the commercial ports sector where he was involved with the development of shore-side infrastructure for all types of merchant ships from bulk grain carriers to oil tankers. The central part of his career was spent with Defence Works Navy, leading teams designing and maintaining shore-side operational facilities for Royal Naval warships; retiring as Operations Director with the Ministry of Defence he then moved back to non military works.

First managing a Millennium Lottery funded restoration of a waterway on which it is reputed that Admiral Lord Nelson, as a boy, learned to sail, and then, a Heritage Lottery funded restoration of an historic canal across southern England, winning in the process national prizes in the fields of engineering and the natural environment.

In a voluntary capacity, he has over many years served with both river and canal organizations and in the 2016 New Year Honours List John was made an MBE ‘for services to the voluntary management and restoration of waterways’. In 2019 he was appointed as President of one of the largest canal partnerships in the UK.