My friend Pete Haine, who has died aged 67 of pancreatic cancer, was a lifelong Spurs fan who on retirement from a senior post in the civil service devoted his time to voluntary work for the club – as well as many charitable causes in Tottenham.
His spell as secretary of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Club coincided with the building of the team’s new stadium in north London, and he was often the bridge between the club board and local residents’ groups and businesses in the work that led up to its opening in 2019. “His love and passion for the club came through and over the years he put in a lot of work for it,” said the former Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt. “It was always outstanding and never for his own ends.”
Born in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, Pete often liked to say that he came into the world “three hours before Spurs kicked off against Blackpool”. His parents, Sheila (nee Parkins), a housewife and the local primary school volunteer, and Frank Haine, who worked for Platignum pens, soon moved the family to Stevenage, and Pete lived there – or thereabouts – for the rest of his life.
After leaving Thomas Alleyne grammar school in Stevenage at the age of 16 he joined the Land Registry department of the civil service, where his skill with computers – then an emerging technology in the workplace – meant he was fast-tracked to executive level, working for a while in Coventry and at head office in London.
He retired at 60 to involve himself in Spurs-focused causes that included the Tottenham Foodbank and Studio 306 collective, a creative space for people recovering from mental illness. He also devised the Spurs Secret History Walk, the proceeds of which go to charity, and was involved in supporting the Antwerp Arms, a community pub in Tottenham set up in 2015, in which he held shares. One of his last tasks was to set up a reading room there to house his archive of Spurs-related photos and memorabilia.
Pete’s outstanding qualities are best summed up by another former Spurs captain, Steve Perryman. “You meet a lot of people in football – players, directors, owners, the mega-wealthy – but it comes down to how nice a person you are, and Pete was one of the nicest people I ever met. His face told you how many Spurs years he’d been through – the grief and delight. When I knew I was going to meet him, I would always look forward to it.”
Pete’s other passion was music – his favourites were Motown and Saint Etienne. He also enjoyed playing cricket and hockey, as part of what he described as “allegedly the fattest back three in Bedfordshire”, and walks with his beloved Westie, Ruby.
He is survived by his wife, Jill Hobson, whom met in 1982, at a pub close to the Land Registry office where they both worked, and married in 1985.
