FRIENDS and family are mourning the death of former Thanet businessman David Pettit who was also one of the areas’s most respected and longest serving district councillors.

He died last weekend at the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate, aged 63, following several years of severe ill health.

Serving as a Conservative and then Independent councillor from 1983-1995, Mr Pettit chaired both the works and leisure committees during his public life and was regarded as fervent campaigner for not only Ramsgate but for the whole of Thanet.

Mr Pettit, a self-made man, began his working life as an assistant in the greengrocery department of a London supermarket and then set out on his own. He built up a chain of 13 greengrocers at one stage.

A Yorkshireman, his abiding sporting passion was Leeds United FC. He would drive from an evening soccer match at their home ground at Elland Road, to Covent Garden in London by 2am to buy fresh flowers, and then onto his stores in Thanet with the produce by 6am.

Close friend John Cutting said: "He stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries with his energy, exuberance and imagination. The secret of his success was his genuine feeling for others, coupled with the rare gift of being able to communicate.

"He was totally in tune with the public with his ready wit, tough brand of humour, lack of pretence and basic kindness."

The quiet support he gave to the families of miners during the national strike in the 1980s was not forgotten by their community, and his second wife, Jackie, recalled his generosity of spirit.

She said: "He would bring home a stranger he had met in the shop and give them dinner, especially during Christimas."

His family, work and the community he served were his driving force, and he only enjoyed his first holiday in 30 years in the last 18 months. He had seven children, three grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Friends and colleagues are invited to a funeral service at St George’s parish church, Ramsgate, at 11am on Monday, July 4. It will be followed by a private cremation at Thanet Crematorium, Margate.

Donations may be made to St Augustine’s ward stroke unit at the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate, c/o H R Palmer funeral directors, Hardres Street, Ramsgate.