In Memory of Ken Boyden
Above: Ken Boyden and Dave Stit Dave Stit
Road safety expert served community in many ways
BY HANK SCHOUTEN
02/08/2010
Ken Boyden was a big man and a great talker who devoted much of his life to road safety.
He was also a good sportsman, a widely respected city and regional councillor and a man who put in a lot of energy to community causes.
He was born on the boundary of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where everybody was keen on cricket, a sport in which he excelled, and he went on to bowl for Lancashire in the English County League.
As a young man, he thought he would like to be a Methodist minister, but he was also interested in police work. A neighbour who was a detective in the Bacup Borough force was an inspiration.
At the age of 14, he left Tunstead Church of England School to work for an engineering firm as he waited to be called up for national service in the army.
He was 19 when he was conscripted into the Royal Engineers and in 1944 his regiment was part of the Allied force that landed on the beaches of Normandy. His role as an engineer was to help blow up bridges to thwart the German retreat and to rebuild them later to help the allied advance.
He was there at the liberation of Holland and served in Greece before being demobilised in 1947 to join the Lancashire police.
Heading to work on his first day, he wasn't too sure where the station was, when he was confronted with the sight of an out-of- control horse. Although he had no experience with animals, he grabbed it and hung on until the horse finally slowed and stopped right outside the police station.
He received an immediate commendation and an extra week's pay.
As a constable, he started off "shaking hands with door knobs" - a reference to the way British bobbies used to walk their beats at night checking that doors were all locked.
The family migrated to New Zealand in 1955, sailing out on the Captain Cook as "10 Pound Poms".
He was sponsored by his uncle, who ran a road contracting business in Napier. The idea was that he might ultimately take over the business, but after two years of heaving bitumen, he applied for a job that was more to his liking.
He had seen that Wellington City Council was advertising for a traffic department investigator.
His first assignment was to carry out an investigation into Wellington taxis, but he later became a prosecutor and assistant traffic superintendent before being appointed traffic superintendent in 1969.
When the government took control of traffic policing, Superintendent Boyden moved to the Transport Ministry and later became regional director - a post he held until his retirement in 1982.
Throughout his life, he devoted a lot of time to road safety, and on occasions when he saw a drunk weaving home, he would stop the driver, bundle him into the back seat of his own car and drive him home.
He had no time for people who tried to pull rank to get off traffic tickets, but had the personality and power of persuasion to cool tempers and talk people around.
When he first joined the council's traffic department, there were no road safety specialists, but he set out to change things radically.
"It was a case of reporting people for anything from serious driving offences to minor parking offences.
"I thought that wasn't the best way to create a good image for the city council.
"I started to promote road safety, with the accent on children. I took the view that if you got children interested, the parents would have to be as well."
The first road-safety week was in 1959. It was opened in Old St Paul's, the then Wellington Cathedral. It was an annual event he continued to organise for 35 years.
Another road safety initiative he was proud of was a travelling play, Too Much Punch For Judy, which toured New Zealand between 1990 and 1993.
He retired at 60, but it was far from the end of his life in public service.
Although he would have liked to have been an MP, he went into local politics, serving six years on the regional council and nine years on Wellington City Council under mayors Jim Belich and Fran Wilde.
He chaired five committees and made one unsuccessful bid to be nominated as a mayoral candidate.
He was elected on a Labour ticket, but was no ideologue - he was practical. He spoke with a warm Lancashire accent and councillors liked to hear him talk.
During debates, he would often emphasise his point with a good yarn, and councillors regularly gave him an extension of time because they wanted to hear him out.
Mr Boyden was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and his granddaughter always preferred him to tell her a story of his own invention rather than have him read a night-time storybook.
He had wide interests and was a good organiser and fundraiser. He indulged his love of cricket in the mercantile league, was president of the Wellington Football Association and the Royal Society of St George, active in Barnardos, Rotary, the Freemasons, the Traffic Institute, the Brass Band Association, Normandy Veterans, the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association, the Senior Centre and the Wesley Church.
Ken Boyden, MBE, councillor and traffic superintendent:
b Bacup, Lancashire, England, January 6, 1922; m Vera Waddington 1d; d Wellington July 14, 2010, aged 88.
Sources: Robert Upton, Barry Kerr,Andy Foster, Ross Bly, Carole Joyce and the Dominion Post library.
- The Dominion Post
Ken Boyden was a big man and a great talker who devoted much of his life to road safety.
He was also a good sportsman, a widely respected city and regional councillor and a man who put in a lot of energy to community causes.
He was born on the boundary of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where everybody was keen on cricket, a sport in which he excelled, and he went on to bowl for Lancashire in the English County League.
As a young man, he thought he would like to be a Methodist minister, but he was also interested in police work. A neighbour who was a detective in the Bacup Borough force was an inspiration.
At the age of 14, he left Tunstead Church of England School to work for an engineering firm as he waited to be called up for national service in the army.
He was 19 when he was conscripted into the Royal Engineers and in 1944 his regiment was part of the Allied force that landed on the beaches of Normandy. His role as an engineer was to help blow up bridges to thwart the German retreat and to rebuild them later to help the allied advance.
He was there at the liberation of Holland and served in Greece before being demobilised in 1947 to join the Lancashire police.
Heading to work on his first day, he wasn't too sure where the station was, when he was confronted with the sight of an out-of- control horse. Although he had no experience with animals, he grabbed it and hung on until the horse finally slowed and stopped right outside the police station.
He received an immediate commendation and an extra week's pay.
As a constable, he started off "shaking hands with door knobs" - a reference to the way British bobbies used to walk their beats at night checking that doors were all locked.
The family migrated to New Zealand in 1955, sailing out on the Captain Cook as "10 Pound Poms".
He was sponsored by his uncle, who ran a road contracting business in Napier. The idea was that he might ultimately take over the business, but after two years of heaving bitumen, he applied for a job that was more to his liking.
He had seen that Wellington City Council was advertising for a traffic department investigator.
His first assignment was to carry out an investigation into Wellington taxis, but he later became a prosecutor and assistant traffic superintendent before being appointed traffic superintendent in 1969.
When the government took control of traffic policing, Superintendent Boyden moved to the Transport Ministry and later became regional director - a post he held until his retirement in 1982.
Throughout his life, he devoted a lot of time to road safety, and on occasions when he saw a drunk weaving home, he would stop the driver, bundle him into the back seat of his own car and drive him home.
He had no time for people who tried to pull rank to get off traffic tickets, but had the personality and power of persuasion to cool tempers and talk people around.
When he first joined the council's traffic department, there were no road safety specialists, but he set out to change things radically.
"It was a case of reporting people for anything from serious driving offences to minor parking offences.
"I thought that wasn't the best way to create a good image for the city council.
"I started to promote road safety, with the accent on children. I took the view that if you got children interested, the parents would have to be as well."
The first road-safety week was in 1959. It was opened in Old St Paul's, the then Wellington Cathedral. It was an annual event he continued to organise for 35 years.
Another road safety initiative he was proud of was a travelling play, Too Much Punch For Judy, which toured New Zealand between 1990 and 1993.
He retired at 60, but it was far from the end of his life in public service.
Although he would have liked to have been an MP, he went into local politics, serving six years on the regional council and nine years on Wellington City Council under mayors Jim Belich and Fran Wilde.
He chaired five committees and made one unsuccessful bid to be nominated as a mayoral candidate.
He was elected on a Labour ticket, but was no ideologue - he was practical. He spoke with a warm Lancashire accent and councillors liked to hear him talk.
During debates, he would often emphasise his point with a good yarn, and councillors regularly gave him an extension of time because they wanted to hear him out.
Mr Boyden was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and his granddaughter always preferred him to tell her a story of his own invention rather than have him read a night-time storybook.
He had wide interests and was a good organiser and fundraiser. He indulged his love of cricket in the mercantile league, was president of the Wellington Football Association and the Royal Society of St George, active in Barnardos, Rotary, the Freemasons, the Traffic Institute, the Brass Band Association, Normandy Veterans, the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association, the Senior Centre and the Wesley Church.
Ken Boyden, MBE, councillor and traffic superintendent:
b Bacup, Lancashire, England, January 6, 1922; m Vera Waddington 1d; d Wellington July 14, 2010, aged 88.
Sources: Robert Upton, Barry Kerr,Andy Foster, Ross Bly, Carole Joyce and the Dominion Post library.
- The Dominion Post