Tufty
Tufty Fluffytail is RoSPA’s iconic red squirrel who was instrumental in helping millions of children to learn about road safety from the 1950s-1990s.
Created in 1953 by Elsie Mills MBE, who worked on child safety initiatives at RoSPA, Tufty helped to communicate simple safety messages to children across the UK.
In 1961, his influence was cemented through the formation of the Tufty Club – a nationwide network of local road safety groups for children. At its peak, there were 24,500 registered Tufty Clubs, with membership passing two million children in 1972.
Although focusing on road safety education, Tufty and his Furryfolk friends, including Policeman Badger, Willy Weasel, Minnie Mole and Mrs Owl, also made forays into other areas of child safety, including home and water safety.
Story books, TV fillers (some voiced by Bernard Cribbins), comics, board games, handkerchiefs, jigsaw puzzles, stickers, colouring books, Christmas cards, soft toys, ceramic figures, puppets, toothbrushes, mealtime sets, knitting patterns, nightwear fabric and song sheets were among the items that helped to maintain Tufty’s profile.
Tufty’s image was changed to keep up with the times in 1979 and again in 1993, before new methods of helping children to learn about road safety came to the fore.

The history of the Tufty Club
What is Tufty doing now?
While other methods of helping children to learn about road safety have now come to the fore, like many in his generation Tufty has not retired! In 2018, his image was incorporated on to RoSPA’s Keeping Kids Safe packs which provided accident prevention tips and tools to help thousands of families with under-fives, and he was also the subject of some safety activities for children at an exhibition to mark RoSPA’s centenary in 2017.
Tufty memories
Tufty loves to receive messages from people who remember him. You can write to him at tufty@rospa.com.