Terry McDermott’s with his brother’s daughter Collette and wife Anne at The Dolphin [Simon Lamrock]

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ROBERT McDermott – the brother of the Liverpool and England legend Terry McDermott – was a popular face around King’s Cross where he had lived since leaving Merseyside to find work in the 1980s.

A construction worker, who helped build the Channel Tunnel, he has been remembered as a “gregarious” character who loved a game of pool and a pint down the pub, a sun-splashed break abroad and couldn’t resist a good prank.

He has died following an aneurism aged 71.

His brother Peter recalled this week how they would often go to Wembley together to watch Terry play in FA Cup finals, or Newcastle United’s away days in the capital when he was first team coach at the club.

His favourite haunt was The Dolphin Pub in Tonbridge Street but it was in the Friend at Hand in Bloomsbury where he first asked his future wife out on a date – on an amped-up microphone in front of all her mates.

Robert McDermott

Anne recalled: “He was at work and then it was the pub. A game of pool and a beer. Meeting up with everybody, that’s what he liked doing best. He was a big character, and everyone knew him around the manor.

“We were together for about 23 years, and then we got married. I remember how we met, he came over to me with a mic he had got from behind the bar. It was in front of all my friends. He came up to the table and asked if I’d like to go for a drink. And there we were.”

The Dolphin Pub was a kind of second home for Robert, for socialising and he also helped out behind the bar from time to time.

At the end of his life he lived in Sage Way, just off King’s Cross Road, but had previously lived in Hastings Street.

Speaking from Liverpool, Peter McDermott said: “We had the funeral in King’s Cross, but he didn’t want his whole family coming down, all the nephews and cousins, because of cost of it for them. He was very clear about that.

“What amazed me was how many people from down there [The Dolphin] came to the funeral. Every time we went to London we had to go there. To be fair, he always looked after us. I remember when he was 60, he came up here to celebrate his birthday – and a large number of people came up here from there with him. It was amazing. He obviously had a real community.”

Born on Merseyside, Robert went to a school which was at the time the biggest all-male comprehensive in the country with more than 2,000 boys. He came down to London in the 1980s in the hope of finding work.

Peter McDermott said: “We were born in the centre of Liverpool and then we moved out to Kirby, one of the orbital towns. We all grew up playing football together. But Robert was never a big football player. He liked to think he was, but he wasn’t.

“Lots of people like Robert were going down to London at the time on the train. They called it ‘The Tebbit Express’,” he said.

The InterCity train got this nickname after the former Tory trade and industry minister Norman Tebbit, who urged the jobless to “get on their bike and look fo­r work”.

Robert found work in the construction industry, in particular helping to build the Channel Tunnel.

“He’d always be walking around pointing at buildings saying he’d worked on or helped to build. The Channel Tunnel was the main one. He did help a lot of people from Merseyside get jobs in London,” said Peter.

“I used to go to London for business and meet up with him. During the 1980s, we’d go to the cup finals Liverpool were playing in. Terry would get you some tickets. And for England, or when he managing Newcastle we’d go to those games in London from time to time.

“I think Terry playing for Liverpool was great for him. People would gravitate towards him, and ask him things. I got the brunt of it up here [in Liverpool]. Friday nights the phone would never stopped ringing for people wanting tickets.”

Midfielder Terry McDermott won 25 caps for England and represented his country in the 1982 World Cup Spain. For Liverpool, he won three European Cups and was part of the five league titles. He was among guests at The Dolphin and the funeral last month.

Describing his brother’s character, Peter McDermott said: “He was gregarious really. You always knew he was in the room. He was not so much a joke teller, but he was always up for pranks. He was the life and soul of anything.

“He liked to go abroad – general holiday places – Madeira, Tenerife. He followed the sun. And I don’t mean the paper, no he wouldn’t touch that.

“He was married up here and had four daughters. He met his now wife in King’s Cross, they were married not long before he died. In fact he got married when he was in bed. He never told us.

“Then a few months later he was up here celebrating his 70th, but then he was in a wheelchair and was on oxygen. It was a big surprise, and a pleasant one.”

Peter added “We’re bringing ashes home to Liverpool at the end of the month. He’s going to be buried with his mother and dad in the West Derby Cemetery. We are going to have a celebration of his life with all the family.”