Former senior Tayside Police officer David Whittet QPM has died at the age of 80.
He held the rank of chief superintendent and acting assistant chief constable when he retired in 1993 and his professionalism and commitment to public service saw him receive the Queen’s Police Medal in 1986.
Born in Coupar Angus, he joined the City of Dundee Police Force in 1954, after two years’ national service, when he volunteered for the military police and served as an armed officer in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Based at South Road, Mr Whittet first served as a beat constable.
He and his wife Ellen, who were married in 1955, first lived above the police station in Lochee.
He scaled the promotions ladder becoming sergeant, inspector, chief inspector and then superintendent in the former city force and then Tayside Police.
On further promotion to chief superintendent, he was in charge of many high-profile events, including royal visits. As assistant chief constable he was in charge of political party conferences in Dundee and Perth, most prominently when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
Mr Whittet also taught generations of trainee and promotion candidate constables as a visiting lecturer at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan.
His 30 years of service were complaint free, in a career that took him from frontline beat policing to managing a force of some 1,000 men and women.
He also prioritised road and public safety in all council works, traffic management, road/motorway development and traffic orders schemes, presenting councillors with professional recommendations and solutions.
Son Mark said his father was a principled opponent of industrial-scale “automated criminalisation” of otherwise law-abiding drivers by “speed-tax cameras on all too many main roads”.
Mr Whittet later created the Professional Policing Through Professional Management corporate slogan for the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents as part of a campaign which was coordinated by businessman son Mark.
In retirement he worked as health and safety manager with Broughty Ferry haulage contractor Harry Lawson Ltd.
His spare time passion was renovating and restoring period cars and motorbikes, at which he was self-taught.
He was a frustrated engineer who redesigned, renovated and rebuilt his home in Coupar Angus, its ancillary garage and workshops, and a 1930s greenhouse.
As well as Ellen and Mark, Mr Whittet is survived by daughter Anne and four grandchildren.