He moved immediately to a Lectureship in the joint Department of Geography and Geology at Hua-Dong Normal University in Shanghai, where he taught Quaternary geology, mineralogy and lithology and worked on research into the sediments of the shallow offshore parts of the East China Sea and the recent history of its coastal changes, a subject dealt with in several of his early papers. His early promise was rewarded by a place in the renowned Department of Geology of Northwestern University in Xian, Shaanxi Province, from which he graduated with distinctionin 1960. It is less than a year since Wang led a Gansu government delegation to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and presented a memorable keynote lecture on modern dust-storms in China during the International Union for Quaternary Research/ Quaternary Resarch Association’s conference at Royal Holloway, London University, on “Wind Blown Sediments in the Quaternary Record”.
Wang was born of a farming family in Jing-Yuan County, Gansu Province, in 1935. This ambitious and innovative field research began, with the aid of European Community and Gansu provincial government finance, in 1987 and is not scheduled for completion until summer 1995. Wang Jingtai was the founding Director of the Geological Hazards Institute of the Gansu Academy of Sciences in Lanzhou, and instrumental in setting up the research programme, involving collaboration with several Western European countries, which h as shed so much light on the catastrophic landslides characteristic of the thick wind-blown deposits (“loess”) of north China.
Today we would be rightly shocked at the physical attacks on his property, we would be rightly shocked if race were to have the same significance in a British election.There is stilll a long way to go before we can say that racism is extinct in Britain, but Pitt’s charm, tolerance and passionate advocacy helped immensely to change the climate in our society.The word “comrade” may nowadays be disappearing from use, but I can think of no better way of paying tribute to David Pitt than to say “He was a good comrade.”David Thomas Pitt, medical practitioner, politician, campaigner: born St David’s, Grenada 3 October 1913; general practitioner, San Fernando 1941-47; President, West Indian National Party (Trinidad) 1943-47; general practitioner, London 1947-94; member, London County Council, for Hackney 1961-64, member, Greater London Council, for Hackney 1964-77; Chairman, Campaign Against Racial Discrimination 1965; JP 1966; Deputy Chairman, Community Relations Commission 1968-77, Chairman 1977; created 1975 Baron Pitt of Hampstead; TC 1976; Chairman, Shelter 1979-90, Vice-President 1990-94; President, British Medical Association 1985-86; married 1943 Dorothy Alleyne (one son, two daughters); died London 18 December 1994.. At the formal disbanding of AAM and the founding meeting of the successor organisation, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), although desperately ill, he sent a message of good wishes and support.Lord Pitt’s warmth and understanding of the nature of politics was a great contribution to society. He shared the joy of that experience while understanding that the work of eradicating apartheid was just beginning. He remained unmoved by this kind of threat and he kept his connection with the Anti-Apartheid Movement from its inception right through the difficult periods until South Africa had its first democratic all-race elections. They then went down to the basement where the offices of these organisations are and they set fire to it. Dr David Pitt, a coloured man, said he had a surgery and waiting room on the ground floor of the premises.The offices had been made available by Pitt.
On March 4th, the Anti Apartheid Movement had organised a March from Great Russell Street to Hyde Park to begin at 4pm. At 4.30pm a group of men drove up to the house, several of them went to the door and obtained entry by a trick. On 21 March 1961 the then London Evening Times carried the following report: Doctor Tells of Blaze: A baronet and two other men were alleged at Clerkenwell today to have been among a party of men who set fire to the offices of the Anti Apartheid Movement in Gower Street, Bloomsbury. He was not deterred, but he was angry, and all the more determined to serve the people with whom he had such affinity.David Pitt was always an internationalist and played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle. In both cases it is generally held that race was a major factor in the rejection of his candidacy.
He faced the cutting edge of racism in the two parliamentary elections he fought, in Hampstead in 1959 and in Clapham South in 1970. He made his mark in the community as a general practitioner and as a politician who understood the needs of ordinary citizens.He is, perhaps, best known for his passionate interest and involvement against racial discrimination and for equality of esteem of individuals irrespective of race, class, creed or colour. I mused aloud what to do and, despite the fact that the once powerful voice that could ring like a blast across a large audience was now an almost inaudible whisper, he mouthed the words I had heard him say so many times before, “Take them on, dear – take them on.”That’s what he did for over half a century.Joan LestorMuch will be written about the life and times of David Pitt, writes Robert Hughes. Many of his visitors in the last few days were from the Caribbean; so were the many messages, for he never forgot his roots.A few days before he died, when he could hear but barely speak, I told him of an incident of a young black man, known to both of us, who had suffered a gross injustice. That change is possible and right, not might, can triumph was a vindication of what he had been about all those long years.So many of the issues on which David Pitt campaigned years ago were far from popular He never jumped on bandwagons; he left that for others. My real test of a politician is “Where were they when the going was tough?” Pitt was always right there He passed the test.He was wonderful company He loved people and they loved him. He held court for his friends right up until a few days before he died.