Canterbury has lost one of its most passionate campaigners and political experts with the death of former city councillor Michael Steed.

The Liberal Democrat was a stalwart of both the national and the local party and also fought for gay rights and the preservation of the historic city.

Michael, who was 83, was a distinguished academic and lecturer, specialising in psephology – the detailed analysis of balloting and election results.

In his retirement, he was made honorary lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Kent.

The son of a Kent farmer, Michael was educated at St Lawrence College in Ramsgate and then Corpus Christ College Cambridge.

But his passion for justice and concern for others was evident from an early age when in 1960 he traveled to South Africa as an anti-apartheid activist to deliver food and aid to the victims of the Sharpeville shootings, only to be denied entry by the authorities.

Michael’s expertise in politics and elections made him a respected contributor to national media debates and coverage.

In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s he made regular television appearances on election night programmes and devised a version of the ‘swingometer’.

An ardent campaigner for the ‘radical’ reform of the Liberal Party, he became its national president in 1978, and pressed for proportional representation.

He stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal Party parliamentary candidate in six elections around the country.

He was also an ardent pro-European and stood for the European Parliament in 1979, pledging to fight for greater control of EU decisions by the citizens of Europe.

But he was also active in local politics, serving on the city council for four years, representing Barton Ward from 2008 to 2012.

‘His mind was as sharp as ever, and he used it to the benefit of the party...’

As a gay man, he campaigned for the rights of homosexuals and was a leading light in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, serving on its executive committee.

During a time when there was still great hostility to gay rights, he spoke out at public meetings, including an acrimonious one in Burnley in 1971 over the proposed establishment of a gay club. It would later be seen as a watershed moment in the emergence of a national grassroots gay rights movement in Britain.

Michael was forced into early retirement due to poor health but still campaigned for the preservation of the city and those who played significant roles in its history.

As a member of the Canterbury Commemorative Society, he was a key figure in establishing the statues of Ethelbert and Bertha in Lady Wootton’s Green, and the Chaucer Statue in the city centre.

He was also a member of the Canterbury Archaeological Society and the Oaten Hill and District Society, now the Oaten Hill and South Canterbury Association.

Michael, who died last Wednesday, previously lived in Dover Street in the city and then Sturry, but had recently moved to Kingston with his partner, Barry Clements.

President of the Canterbury and Coastal Liberal Democrats Martin Vye said the group had learned of his death with great sadness.

“Despite his disability, his mind was as sharp as ever, and he used it to the benefit of the party that had resulted from the merger of the Liberal and Social Democratic parties,” he said.

“He remained a keen and active member of the group that considered each year the drafting of motions for the national party conference.

“And outside politics he was a passionate believer in bringing home to residents and visitors the importance of individuals in the making of this historic city.”