Harold ‘Kit’ Kite MBE, FIRSO, sadly passed away on 29 January at the age of 89 having battled illness for the past three years.
Kit enjoyed a long and distinguished career in road safety, and in 1984 was awarded the MBE for services to road safety.
Kit was the road safety officer at the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark before moving to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham where he remained from 1965 until 1986.
He was at the meeting with other visionaries including Vic Golds, Dorothy Pummel and Arthur Taffs when they founded the Association of Road Safety Officers, which later became the Institute of Road Safety Officers. Between 1980 and 1983 he was chairman of the London Area Group of IRSO.
He was involved in setting up the qualification courses at the Middlesex Polytechnic which started in 1974 and became the national standard for road safety officers, recognised by local authorities across the UK.
He was the first chairman of the Association of London Borough Road Safety Officers (now Road Safety GB London).
Peter Wilson FIRSO, commissioning officer (road safety education) at Westminster, said: “I had the privilege of working for Kit for 10 years, at Hammersmith and Fulham, where he mentored me. Like all his staff, I attended the Middlesex Poly courses and he encouraged us all to become ADIs, motorcyclists, and much more. Eventually he was the least qualified among us, but took great pride in our achievements, seeing them as his legacy to the profession.”
Kit’s funeral will take place at 2pm on Monday 11 February, at Chilterns Crematorium, Whielden Lane, Amersham, HP7 0ND.
Perhaps the end of an era but what a legacy he has left. Kit was a pioneer in developing professional qualifications in Road Safety ETP and in encouraging a broad based set of skills and road user understanding in his team and his profession. We owe him and his fellow founding colleagues a great deal.
Honor Byford, Vice Chair Road Safety GB
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