My father, Harry Harrison, who has died aged 71 of leukaemia, was a social employee devoted to the career and the precept of group outreach.
Throughout his 50-year profession he labored for Leicestershire, Islington, Hackney and Medway social providers, serving to quite a few youngsters and their households.
He was carefully concerned within the institution of Certain Begin centres in Medway, work of which he was immensely proud. Within the latter a part of his profession he was an unbiased little one safety coach throughout the UK, inspiring a spread of pros and bettering their apply.
Born Robert Harrison, in Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire, he grew up in Sileby. Each his dad and mom labored for the railways, his mom, Olive (nee Benson), as a station clerk, and father, Ted, as a station grasp. After Loughborough School faculty, Harry labored for the Labour trade, discovering jobs for prisoners and former inmates (1970-73), then grew to become a trainee social employee with Leicestershire social providers, qualifying at Middlesbrough Polytechnic (now a part of Teesside College) in 1976.
Searching for extra community-based approaches, Harry joined Islington social providers in 1977. He stayed with the north London borough, rising to senior administration positions, till 1994. After 4 years with Hackney, specialising in little one safety, he moved to Medway as youngsters’s coverage officer.
My father was energetic within the Labour get together all through his life. In 1983 he helped discovered the Flag Co-operative Brewery, which ran bars supporting festivals and political causes throughout London.
He additionally volunteered with Ocean Youth Membership, now Ocean Youth Belief. Via taking youngsters out on tall ships, he found a love of crusing, and in late 1988 launched into a voyage in a small yacht with two pals throughout the Atlantic.
A month at sea, crusing via heavy storms and days becalmed with out seeing one other ship on the horizon, was the best journey of his life, and his account of the journey gained the BBC Radio 4 Ticket to Write competitors in 1989.
Harry met Esme Risner, additionally a social employee, in Islington. That they had two youngsters, Annie and me, and have been married in 1998 in Bequia, the Caribbean island the place my father had landed on his Atlantic crossing. They settled in Whitstable, Kent. Retiring from Medway in 2008, Harry labored as a marketing consultant and coach till the tip of his life.
His kindness and generosity enriched many friendships over the course of his life – he all the time had time to talk, particularly in case you have been within the Whitstable micropubs he liked.
He’s survived by Esme, Annie and me, a daughter, Samantha, from a earlier relationship, and a grandson, Arran.
