My brother-in-law John Tymukas, who has died aged 73, was a structural engineer on many of London’s infrastructure projects from the 1990s onwards, including Canning Town station, Heathrow Terminal 5, Glaxo Smithkline HQ and Crossrail Bond Street.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, John was the son of Kostas, a Lithuanian refugee and engineer, and Kathleen (nee Donohoe), the daughter of Irish emigrants and a former clerk. He was the eldest of six siblings. John completed his education in Brisbane at Downlands school and the Queensland Institute of Technology, where he took a four-year engineering degree course and worked in Australia before heading in 1990 to London to work on contracts with engineering companies such as SKB and WSP.

An avid traveller, he covered Europe extensively, making contact with Lithuanian and Irish family members and discovering family history unknown in Australia until he made the links.

As a result of his travels John developed an extensive network of colleagues and friends across Europe, many sharing his love for sport and fitness, which he developed through Dulwich Paragon cycling club and Dulwich running club, where he helped others with their training programmes. He participated in many marathons under the three-hour mark, including the 1993 London marathon, in which he finished in the top 1,000 runners.

John retired shortly before the Covid lockdown, and a stroke in 2020 brought an end to his European stay, forcing him to return to Adelaide, where family members helped with his care in a retirement village.

He is survived by his siblings, Anna, Peter, Thomas, Julia and Paul, 14 nieces and nephews, and eight great-nieces and great-nephews.