A FORMER pub owner and survivor of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, Kiki Hollingsbee, has died at the age of 56.

Born Kenneth, but known to friends and family as Kiki, Mr Hollingsbee was a Canterbury man from birth.

He left the former Frank Hooker School, now Canterbury High, at 16 for a short-lived apprenticeship as an electrician.

A job as a bottle washer gave him his first role in the old Coach and Horses, in St George’s Lane in the city, a venue he would one day own.

Mr Hollingsbee had stints working as a train driver, a taxi driver and as a steward on the cross-Channel ferries.

He was on the Herald of Free Enterprise on March 6, 1987 when the ferry capsized as it left the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the way to Dover with the loss of 193 lives. Mr Hollingsbee was awarded a commemorative medal from the ferry company for his role in saving lives and helping the survivors.

In 1991, he took over the Coach and Horses, later to be demolished to make way for the Whitefriars development.

He renamed it the Fools and Horses and encouraged live music and karaoke.

Music played a prominent part in his life, which was to rub off on his four children, Trudi, Dylan, and twins Ben and Sam.

Under the stage name Dylan Burns, Mr Hollingsbee’s oldest son got to number three in the charts last month with his partnership Bodyrockers and the song I Like The Way.

Other passions included banger racing, in which he took part in the 1970s, and motor racing.

Mr Hollingsbee suffered a heart attack in 1992. By this time he had been reunited with childhood sweetheart Lyn Walker and the couple moved to the Royal Oak pub, in Broad Oak, in 1995.

He had a triple heart bypass in November, 2003, but was plagued with chest pains and breathing problems right up to his death in William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, on Sunday.

Mr Hollingsbee leaves his partner Lyn, four children, three stepchildren and five grand-stepchildren.

His funeral is on Friday, May 20 at 1pm at Barham Crematorium. Flowers to C.W. Lyons funeral directors, 01227 463508. Donations may be made to the British Heart Foundation on 01227 379916.