Tuesday, June 28, 2022

British Asian Immigration, the 1979 Southall Riot and the Death of Blair Peach

  

From The Guardian

    After World War II, Britain experienced a wave of migration that transformed the nation into a multiethnic quilt of racial and ethnic groups. During that era, Britain actively recruited labor from their former colonies including India, Pakistan, and the British Caribbean.[1] While many native English workers moved into the service industry, electromechanical engineering, and manufacturing, unskilled and semi-skilled labor fell upon newly arrived Afro-Caribbean, Indian, and Pakistani workers. The arrival of such large numbers of migrants caused concern, leading Parliament to adopt immigration restrictions as early as the late 1950s. Concerns centered upon the apprehension that unrestricted immigration of non-whites could lead to the unraveling of the social fabric and cohesion of the country.[2] These fears generated attacks on minorities. The transformation of neighborhoods into ethnic enclaves led numerous groups to compare the migrant incursion to a foreign invasion. The continued migration of South Asians in the sixties and seventies led to resentment and cultural conflict and the growth of far-right extremist groups such as the National Front.[3]

The culmination of these years of racial conflict took place on April 23, 1979, when  the extremist group the National Front staged a protest in the center of the Southall High Street and encountered counter-protesters composed of South Asians and those sympathetic to them.[4] During the protest, New Zealand native Blair Peach died after receiving a blow to the head from a policeman’s truncheon.[5] The following pages examine the events of April 23, 1979, the tensions that led to the protests, the death of activist and teacher Blair Peach, and the aftermath of the conflict. The Southall protests of 1979 offer an example of the difficulties faced by South Asian immigrants and the conflict leading to the current multicultural British state, with South Asians today occupying prominent places in government, entertainment, and greater society. The events surrounding the death of Peach and the Southall riot continue to receive notice from historians but primarily as an event within larger historical accounts. Most accounts describing the actions of the riot come primarily from journalists and left-wing activists.

Southall, Middlesex from My London News https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/what-lifes-like-living-southall-15744189
    

 An understanding of the 1979 conflict begins with an examination of the post-war migration of South Asians into Britain and the growth of distinctive ethnic enclaves. British cities and especially London, have a long history of growth from rural to urban migrants as well as migrants coming from varied parts of Europe.[6] During the 19th Century, anxiety and conflict became regular features of city life as waves of Irish and Jewish migrants rose in number. Anti-alienism grew as politicians sought to turn suspicion of immigrants into votes.[7] Conflict over immigration runs deep within British history. The post-war immigration surge saw the rise of xenophobia and nativism. The period following World War II saw large numbers of Caribbean and South Asian newcomers within British cities. Muslim mosques, Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu temples, Afro-Caribbean churches, restaurants, and shops dominated large cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, and Coventry. While migrants brought new life to many older neighborhoods, resentment and conflict grew among many white Britons.

South Asian migrants began to arrive to Britain as the British faced serious labor shortages after World War II.[8] The Southall neighborhood had a history of attracting migrants as newcomers from other parts of the British Isles and Europe relocated.[9] By the early 20th Century, Southall hosted a variety of industries, drawing a number of migrants during the first half of the 1900s, with the Welsh comprising the largest group.[10] Many of the first Punjabi Sikhs migrated to west London when the general manager of the R Woolf rubber factory in Hayes remembered the work ethic of the Sikh troops under his command.[11] The growth of Heathrow airport also served as a magnet for many Asian laborers due to its close vicinity to Southall. Responding to opportunities for work, mostly male Sikh migrants settled in nearby Southall due to the affordable nature of the neighborhood. Most of these migrants originated from central and northeastern Punjab, primarily from the areas of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur. According to historian Sandhya Shukla, the similarities in origins created a homogeneity that encouraged the arriving Punjabis to gather. Family connections and religious affiliation brought a sense of comfort within the Southall neighborhood.[12]  Many of these migrants previously served the Empire in the Indian Army, which served as a badge of honor. Most of the early migrants made plans to return to India after saving a large income. This led to much of the early Punjabi migrant experience centered around pubs and men’s boarding houses. The boarding houses were overcrowded and many only used their rooms for eating and sleeping. Often men from different factory shifts shared the same bed.[13] In 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act greatly limited immigration from India. Despite these restrictions, the population of Southall continued to grow as new migrants hurried to arrive before the implementation of the Act. The arrival of relatives, dependents and new spouses meant the number of Punjabi settlers increased in west London.[14]

             

                                                 Approximate location of Southall in Metropolitan London.

Encounters with racism led to the formation of the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA) in 1956 by representatives associated with the Communist Party of India. The IWA became one of the most powerful Asian political groups throughout the Sixties and Seventies as they campaigned on behalf of equality and worker’s rights. The IWA increased power as its membership grew to over 20,000 members. [15] One of the early community issues involving the IWA was the forced bussing of Asian students from Southall to majority-white schools. The London Borough of Ealing bussed Asian students from their home school districts, citing the need to scatter immigrant children to accelerate assimilation and promote integration.[16] The IWA initially supported bussing but led the public campaign against the practice as it became evident that long bus rides disadvantaged Asian students. According to the IWA, the bussing of only Asian students was blatant discrimination, subjecting students to ostracism and racist attacks.[17]

Following the breakup of the British Empire in the 1960s, a new wave of South Asians arrived in Britain. This group of Indians, many of whom possessed British passports, left their homes in the new nations of independent Africa. These migrants brought more ethnic diversity as many originated from different regions of India including Punjabis. These emigrants arrived during the 1960s and ‘70s as many faced expulsions from east Africa. This diverse group of Asians contained traders, laborers, as well as professionals.[18] By 1967, immigration rose to the forefront of British headlines as Kenyan government policies made life difficult for South Asian residents. They were pushed toward migration by the Kenyan government’s desire to employ indigenous Kenyans in place of other ethnic groups. In the first two months of 1968, 13,000 Asians arrived from Kenya, causing the issue of immigration to take a prominent place in British politics.[19] 

From the British Library https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/oral-histories-of-ethnicity-and-post-colonialism
 

On April 20, 1968, J. Enoch Powell, the Conservative MP of Wolverhampton delivered  a speech that reverberated throughout the nation. Powell claimed that the growing Asian and Afro-Caribbean population made the native English "strangers in their own land,” while he predicted that unless immigration ceased that “like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood.’’[20] Powell’s speech received massive publicity, making him one of the most well-known politicians in Britain and generating new tensions over immigration. While officially rejected by the Conservative Party after his dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet, Powell found support for his nativist ideas among a large segment of the British public. Four opinion polls found support for Powell ranging from 67 to 82 in his favor, and reflected the extensive frustration many Britons felt about immigration.[21] Powell’s speech warned of alien invasion and a takeover of neighborhoods and communities by immigrant communities.[22] The MP infused his speech with language meant to inflame and frighten the native-born British population. He predicted that the nation was “heaping up its own funeral pyre.”[23]  

Enoch Powell from The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/enoch-powell-rivers-of-blood/558344/ 

The far-right political party, the National Front, was one of the primary beneficiaries  of Powell’s speech. Although founded previously to Powell’s opposition to Asian immigration, the “River of Blood” speech advanced the anti-immigration agenda of the National Front, and the party saw a steady increase in membership. Founded in 1967, the National Front emphasized the issues of race, nationalism, and anti-immigration. The NF worked hard to gain adherents among working-class, youth, and Conservative Party members distressed over immigration.[24] Former NF member Joseph Pearce explained the goals of the NF:

Policy platform demanded the “compulsory repatriation of all non-whites to their lands of ethnic origin”. The political strategy toward minority communities was to incite hatred between the communities, thereby sparking racial conflict or race war which would make the multiracial society unworkable.[25]

 

While gaining recognition after the “River of Blood” speech, the NF took advantage  of nativist fears when in 1972 the Conservative government permitted thousands of Ugandan-Indian refugees entry into Britain after they were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The NF organized a 100-picket demonstration at 10 Downing Street. Over the final four months of 1972, the NF gained 800 new members.[26] For the NF, race was at the center of their campaigns and their candidates regularly boasted of their xenophobia. During a 1976 campaign, supporters wore badges stating, “I am a Racialist,” and the NF candidate for Coventry stated, “The National Front is a racialist party. This is not something we admit, but we boast and proclaim.”[27] The NF committed themselves to a white Britain and proposed the expulsion of all non-white populations. Former NF member Joseph Pearce confirmed that the agenda of the NF consisted not only of nativism but white supremacy. The leadership of the NF believed in the inherent superiority of the white race.[28]

Continued attention to racial diversification as a threat to the nation caused many members and sympathizers of the National Front to use violence to terrorize members of the Asian and black communities. “Paki-bashing” became a favored sport of racist youth, who roamed the streets searching for vulnerable Sikhs or Muslims to attack. Others used air rifles or rocks to attack immigrant places of worship.[29] Asians often complained that when the police arrived after an attack, that even though they were the victim, they were the subject to abuse and questioning from the police. Both black and South Asian residents complained that police routinely insulted them or asked questions about their immigration status. Stop and search procedures were a common concern for minorities.[30] Throughout the 1970s, the Bengali East End and the majority Punjabi Southall received systematic targeting from racist propaganda and attacks orchestrated by neo-fascist groups such as the National Front, the British Movement, and the British National Party.[31] Complicating these events, the Metropolitan Police appeared slow to respond to the concerns of both black and Asian communities and resented criticism from outsiders. In 1970, the Met announced that it had appointed Dr. W.A. Belson to conduct a succession of research studies examining the relationship between the public and the police. Belson’s research revealed that 62% of police believed that there was no need for outside accountability for police procedures and 53% of officers branded West Indians as a problem group while 32% believed that non-whites were less intelligent.[32] At the same time, the police found themselves plagued with problems of insufficient man-power and constant publicity about alleged police corruption that impacted morale.[33]

Tensions over immigration intensified when a small number of Asians from the African nation of Malawi arrived in May of 1976. The advent of local elections combined with latent hostility toward outsiders caused a panic exploited by the National Front and other far-right parties.[34] The Asians were British passport holders and entitled to enter the country under quotas set in 1976, but the uproar only rose after the West Sussex County Council made questionable decisions in processing and housing the migrants. The council placed two Asian Goan families in a four-star hotel costing taxpayers 600 pounds a week. The tabloid press escalated the outrage with shocking headlines. Debate in Parliament centered on the damage to race relations and resentment from the working class caused by the Council’s decision.[35] The total Indians entering Britain from Malawi numbered only 300, yet the possibility remained that all 6800 Asians residing in the African nation faced expulsion.[36]

In June 1976, racial conflict rose to a new level when an 18-year-old Sikh man, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, died after a stabbing perpetrated by a gang of white youths outside the Dominion Cinema, a local Southall cinema that featured Bollywood movies and hosted community events.[37] The reaction of the NF to the murder further complicated relations when Blackburn councillor and NF leader John Kingley Read commented: “’One down- a million to go.”’ Read was indicted under the provision of the Public Order Act, but prosecution failed.[38] The murder enflamed the Indian community and provoked massive demonstrations in the streets of Southall, with protesters carrying placards proclaiming: “”We are here to Stay.””[39] The murder of Chaggar led to the formation of the Southall Youth Movement, a group of young Asians committed to going to the streets to fight racist gangs.[40] The SYM was more aggressive and less willing to tolerate racism than the older members of the IWA. The May 1978 murder of young Bengali Atab Ali in Whitechapel added to the disillusionment of Asian youth. Like young Punjabis in Southall, Bengali youth complained that they found themselves subject to police harassment when reporting attacks.

Gurdip Singh Chaggar

In 1978 the Bethnal Green and Stepney Trades Council produced a report detailing over  a hundred episodes of racially motivated attacks in East London. The report also alleged that Asians faced a higher percentage of arrests compared to whites even when attacks were provoked by whites.[41] The NF continued to target the Bengali community in the East End with street corner meetings and eventually moved their headquarters from Twickenham to Shoreditch, within the Bengali neighborhood in an attempt to intimidate Asians.[42] On 12 June 1978, 150 white youths went on a ‘racialist campaign’ smashing windows and attacking Bengali businesses. A 55-year-old man received a serious injury from a brick thrown through his shop window. Two weeks later, Bengali Ishaque Ali was murdered in East London.  Like Punjabis in Southall, Bengalis organized multi-day protests in response to the murders and racist attacks.[43]

Continued racist attacks proved to be a radicalizing element for many Asians. Indifference and hostility from the police suggested to many Asians that they were alone in their opposition to neo-fascist groups. Aloke Biswas, a social worker in the 1970s, expressed the frustration of police indifference many Asians felt:

One of the things that comes to mind is the role of the police...people have been beaten up and murdered... we went to the police and the police took the attitude that, ‘What can we do?’ ...‘Do you know who has done it?’ How could we know, because it happened at one o’clock in the morning? They said: ‘Then what do you want us to do?’... and there was the time when we said ‘Right if you can’t defend us, then we will have to defend ourselves.’[44]

 

In response, many Asians looked to the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) as an ally in the fight against the National Front and other nativist groups. Created in 1977, the ANL emerged primarily from the Socialist Workers Party. The ANL’s mission was to actively oppose the National Front and other neo-fascist groups and eliminate support for the NF through counter-protests, education, and vocal opposition to the NF agenda.[45]

National Front march  in Yorkshire during the 1970s from Wikipedia

The ANL’s strategy to confront the NF appeared successful at the outset, with thousands attending their rallies in London and Manchester. However, the decision to openly confront the NF with counter-demonstrations proved controversial. ANL counter-demonstrations often spurred violence in the course of confrontations with NF activists. Violent exchanges between the NF and the ANL led to negative editorials from mainstream media such as the Daily Telegraph, which questioned the motives of the counter-protests.[46] The ANL responded that counter-marches were vital to its anti-racist campaign. ANL cofounder Paul Holborrow emphasized the need for confrontation after seeing the growth of the NF, evidenced by its ability to draw 119,000 votes in the Greater London Council elections. In an interview with The Guardian Holborrow explained:

The problem of the National Front and racism can only be defeated by having a large involvement of people… Most of the other anti-racist organizations are fairly moribund. We have emphasized actions rather than committee meetings.[47]

 

While the ANL emerged primarily from the Socialist Workers Party, the group still managed to attract some activists from the Labour Party even though the ANL’s leadership strived to avoid traditional party politics.[48]

            Mistrust and suspicions on both sides prevented cooperation between the police and minority groups. Minorities constantly faced accusations that they were responsible for the high crime rate, even though members of these groups were victims of crime and attacks at higher rates than whites. The attitude of the police toward minorities appeared to compound the problem. A study conducted by the Policy Study Institute found racist attitudes prevalent among the Metropolitan Police. The study found that bigoted language, including use of words like “coons, n—gers, and, spades” were frequent among policemen and senior officers.[49] Racial attacks and doubts regarding the police took a toll. The Home Office presented a report in 1981 stating:

It was clear to us that the Asian community widely believes that it is the object of a campaign of unremitting racial harassment which it fears will grow in the future. In many places we were told that Asian families were too frightened to leave their homes at night or to visit shopping centres at weekends where gangs of skinheads congregate. Even in places where few racial incidents have occurred, the awareness of what is happening in other parts of the country induces a widespread apprehension that the climate locally is likely to deteriorate and that more serious incidents are likely in the future. In some places there is a sense of uncomplaining acceptance among some Asians of manifestations of racial violence. The problem was thought to be so widespread that they regarded it as little more than an unwelcome feature of contemporary British life.[50]

 

It is difficult to determine what role racism within the Metropolitan Police plays. Former NF member Joseph Pearce stated that many police officers were sympathetic to the NF.  A member of the Special Branch (an investigative unit) was forced to resign after he was photographed with Pearce, exposing his NF sympathies.[51]

            May 1979 was an election year. Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives challenged the Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan. The National Front was among the many political parties presenting candidates. John Fairhurst was the NF’s unsuccessful candidate in Hayes and Harlington in two 1974 elections. Despite his lack of previous electoral success, the NF decided to put Fairhurst forward as was their candidate for Southall in the 1979 election. The NF received approval from the Ealing Council to hold an election meeting at the Southall town hall on April 23, 1979. The election meeting in Southall was not a rally to obtain Southall votes; rather it was a provocation and an attempt to gain publicity.[52]

Southall Town Hall from Wikipedia

     In response to the proposed NF meeting, the Indian Workers’ Association petitioned the Ealing Council to ban the NF from meeting in Southall. When the Council refused to ban the meeting, the IWA planned a protest march from Southall to Ealing on Sunday, April 22nd to present their petition to the Council. The IWA also asked workers to strike at noon on the 23rd and for local Southall businesses to shut down in protest at the same time. Two hours before the NF meeting, the IWA called for a peaceful sit-down protest outside the town hall.[53]

            On Sunday April 22nd a crowd of 5-6000 gathered at the Dominion car park in Southall  to begin the protest march. Almost immediately they encountered about 500 policemen, including a large number mounted on horses. Marching from Southall, the group shouted anti-racist slogans and chants. Balwinder Rana led the demonstration from the back of a truck equipped with loudspeakers, and, as the march proceeded, more protesters joined. When the march reached an area near Ealing Hospital, Rana says the police began to “hassle” a number of the youth and arrested about 20 marchers.[54]

            Early the following day, police began to arrive in Southall and rumors began to spread that the police had plans to secretly bring the NF into the hall sooner than scheduled. Responding to the rumors, numbers of protesters led by the Southall Youth Movement began to gather near the town hall, where they were opposed by police.[55] Rana explained that the attitude of many Southall protesters was that a failure to stop and defeat the NF in Southall was unacceptable. Allowing the NF into the community was a setback for Southall. In contrast, victory against the NF could turn the tide against racism to make a secure future for the community and set an example for other Asian neighborhoods.[56]

By noon, Southall shops closed and most of the workers from local factories walked off the job. Large numbers of protesters led by the SYM gathered near the town hall and police began to push the demonstrators back. Throughout the afternoon growing numbers of people converged on and crowded the Southall High Street. Around 5pm the police cordoned off the main roads in an attempt to “make a sterile area around the town hall.”[57] Protesters on Southall Broadway found themselves trapped between two police cordons, with a cordon east on the main road by the town hall and another cordon west several blacks away on the Broadway.[58] Several hundred Southall inhabitants found themselves outside the cordoned area, with many having no passage to their homes.[59] Residents who attempted to get past the police cordon faced riot shields and truncheons.[60] Rather than quelling the violence, the cordons appeared to frustrate the crowds. Violence increased as many youthful members of the gathering threw stones and bottles at police. About 6:20, a large number of the crowd attempted to break the barricades. One policeman was stabbed, and several others were injured.[61]

One question about which the police and protesters agree is the fact that a number of youth resorted to throwing missiles by the late afternoon. A number of young Asians took wood off a lorry and used it to smash the windows of a London Transport bus. More police arrived, and the violence escalated. [62] About 7:30, protesters on the Southall Broadway noticed a large bus carrying about 20 members of the NF and police officers. The coach stopped at the town hall and released its passengers. Exiting the coach, the NF members shouted racist vulgarities and raised their arms in a Nazi salute.  Once the NF members were within the hall, the police stretched their lines to force protesters away.[63] As both demonstrators and police escalated the violence, members of the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group arrived in their vans. They began attacking and arresting groups of protesters. The Special Patrol Group (SGP) had been organized in 1961 to handle urban violence and terrorism deemed too problematic for local divisions.[64]

On the Southall Broadway, demonstrators began to break windows as the police moved forward in strength. At the railway bridge, about 200 Asians staged a peaceful sit-in but threw rocks when approached by the police. Police came through the cordons and began to snatch up protesters.[65] A reporter for the Daily Telegraph described the battle between police and demonstrators:

Suddenly the police cordon parted and ranks of mounted horsemen charged at the spitting mob. Behind them came groups of policemen sheltering behind riot shields as bricks and bottles smashed around them, hit their legs and tipped off their helmets…As we watched, several dozen crying, screaming coloured demonstrators were dragged bodily along Park View Road and along the Uxbridge Road to the police station and waiting coaches. Nearly every demonstrator we saw had blood flowing from some sort of injury. Some were doubled up in pain. Women and men were crying. A coloured woman stopped in her tracks to call the police ‘White rough bastards.’ She was lifted bodily in the air by policemen themselves bleeding from injuries and with their uniforms in tatters.[66]

 

As the chaos escalated, a group of Afro-Caribbean Southall residents joined the protest. Members of the SPG began pursuit. The West Indians were members of a band called, Misty in Roots. Its members resided in the People's Unite building, the headquarters of an Afro-Caribbean organization.[67] Police claimed that the group began the conflict with rock-throwing, followed by the police forcing their way into the building. The police admitted that those inside suffered considerable injury, but they claimed the occupants had thrown rocks and smoke canisters at them.[68] Clarence Baker, the manager of Misty in Roots, received severe head injuries. He was placed in a cell while still unconscious. Baker says that when the police realized that his injuries were serious, he was released with a friend who caught a cab and admitted Baker into the hospital, where he received treatment for a fractured skull.[69] Baker claimed that the police destroyed the band’s studio and musical equipment worth thousands of pounds, while also busting water pipes causing the building to flood. After the riot, the building was condemned by the council and later destroyed.[70]

While the leaders of the protest were primarily members of the IWA and the SYM, there were a number of members of the Anti-Nazi League in attendance as well. New Zealand native Blair Peach was one of ANL members. Peach, a member of the ANL and the SWP, taught at the Phoenix School in Bow, East London and was known for his hatred of racism. Elected president of the East London Teachers Association in 1978, Peach had a reputation as an involved teacher. He maintained an active involvement with the ANL and participated in actions designed to respond to NF attacks against the Bengali community in East London.[71]

Blair Peach from Wikipedia

Peach and his friends Jo Lang, Amanda Leon, Martin Gerald, and Françoise Ichard traveled to Southall by car and arrived about 4:45 p.m. They planned to join the protest at the town hall, but the heavy police presence made that plan unworkable. The five friends journeyed to Southall Broadway and remained until about 7:30 after the police bus carrying the NF forced its way through the crowd.[72] As the police became more aggressive in dispersing the crowd, Peach and his friends decided to leave the Broadway by going down a narrow side street, Beachcroft Ave, which led to Orchard Ave. Jo Lang, a friend and fellow member of the ANL, recalled:  

“Police had pushed and shoved us, we'd fallen over and they were beginning to push and shove us even more. So we decided to go. We walked away from the Broadway and turned down this road, which is Beachcroft Avenue. As we walk down Beachcroft Avenue, there were people in the street towards the top of Beachcroft Avenue and several, I'm not sure how many, five-six vans arrived full of police. Now we didn't know who they were at the time but we realized that they were the SPG afterwards. We decided that we would leave because the Police charged down Beachcroft Avenue towards Orchard Avenue and I have to say I ran. And I ran down Orchard Avenue. At the bottom of Orchard Avenue there's an alleyway and we were attempting to go out of the alley at the bottom. When we got to the bottom, myself and the other people I’ve been with all day we realized that Blair wasn't with us and the Police were still around in these two roads and it was actually very intimidating. But we decided we will come back and look for Blair because we had no idea where he was.[73]

Peach and Amanda Leon found themselves separated from their friends on Orchard Ave. Beechcroft Ave leads away from Southall Broadway but takes a broad curve and circles back to Southall Broadway where there was a heavy police presence. Peach and Leon encountered a line of SPG police officers with shields and truncheons, exiting a police cruiser. She stated she saw an officer hit Peach on the head with a truncheon while she received a blow from another officer. In a 1980 interview with the Evening Standard, Parminder Atwal described the attack, which he witnessed from his front garden. He saw a policeman shove Peach with his shield. He continued:

As the police rushed past him, one of them hit him on the head with the stick. I was in my garden and I saw this quite clearly. When they all rushed past, he was left sitting against the wall. He tried to get up: but he was shivering and looked very strange. He couldn’t stand. Then the police came back and told him this: “Move! Come on, move!” They were very rough with him and I was shocked because it was clear he was seriously hurt. He was unable to move. He was so scared they might hit him again he put his hands over his head. He was trembling.[74]

 

Another member of the Atwal family also saw the attack on Peach. She

saw blue vans coming down Beachcroft Avenue. They were coming very fast − as they came round Beachcroft Avenue, they stopped. I saw policemen with shields come out − people started running and the police tried to disperse them. I saw police hitting. I saw a white man standing there ... The police were hitting everybody. People started running, some in the alley, some in my house ... I saw Peach, I then saw the policeman with the shield attack Peach.[75]

 

The Atwals brought Peach into their home, where he lay on the sofa and the family gave him a glass of water. At 8:12 p.m. the Atwals called an ambulance and Peach entered nearby Ealing Hospital. Upon examination, Peach was found to have a fractured skull on the left side of his head. After surgery, he died at 12.10 am on 24th April, 1979.[76] According to the medical reports, the cause of death was internal bleeding due to a fracture of the skull from a blow crushing the left side of the skull and “causing extensive uncontrollable extradural hemorrhage.”[77] Approximately 40 policemen also received injuries. About half of those went to the hospital, where they were treated and released. The number of injured overwhelmed Ealing Hospital. The large amount of injured required the next day’s surgeries to be rescheduled to make room for the injured.[78]


Figure 2 Map of Southall Broadway area. Note the location of the Town Hall in the top right and the location on Orchard where Peach died. The red arrow indicates the direction taken from the Broadway.

            Peach’s partner, Celia Stubbs, arrived at the hospital around midnight, when she learned of his death. Stubbs also attended the Southall protest but lost contact with Peach during the confusion. Police immediately took Stubbs to the police station, where she faced interrogation. Overwhelmed, Stubbs felt she was a suspect:

 I was in such a dazed state and the police were really bullying. I felt they were on the offensive, treating me like a suspect. What was Blair's politics? Why was I at the protest? At the back of my mind I already knew they had killed him.[79]

 

Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir David McNee defiantly defended his officers. He addressed a black reporter, “I understand the concern of your people. But if you keep off the streets of London and behave yourselves you won't have the SPG to worry about.”[80]

            The death of Blair Peach touched many in Southall. More than 10,000 filed past the site of his death and, on June 12, 1979 at least 8,000 paid respects at the Dominion Cinema, where his body laid for a vigil. The next day, his funeral with thousands in attendance took place at East London Cemetery.[81]

            The death of Blair Peach caused an uproar as the ANL accused the Metropolitan Police of murder and police brutality. Vishnu Sharma, the president of the IWA, protested, 

If anyone would have liked to see the police state in total operation he should have been in Southall. The National Front was allowed to hold its meeting by Ealing Council with the help of the police force.[82]

The National Council of Civil Liberties, an advocacy group for civil rights complained that police conduct was “volatile and extremely aggressive.” [83]

The Funeral of Blair Peach 
https://web.archive.org/web/20140516035249/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n10/david-renton/the-killing-of-blair-peach

In response, the Police appointed Commander John Cass, chief of the Metropolitan Police’s Complaint Investigation Bureau to investigate the death. Cass used 30 investigators and devoted more than 30,000 man hours on the Peach case.[84] A search of SPG officer’s lockers revealed a number of illegal weapons such as illegal truncheons, knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3ft wooden stave, a lead-weighted leather stick, a metal cosh, and a collection of Nazi decorations.[85] Although the Cass report determined that the likelihood was that the officers in the SPG carrier labeled ‘U11’ were Peach’s assailants, he received little cooperation from the suspected policemen. Fourteen witnesses indicated that Peach received a blow from a policeman, but none could identify a specific officer. In order to stymie potential witnesses one officer shaved off his mustache, while another grew a beard. All officers in that unit sent their clothes for cleaning before examination.[86] Cass determined that the officers lied and covered up the tragedy:

Whilst it can reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow, and that that officer came from carrier U.11, I am sure that it will be agreed that the present situation is far from satisfactory and disturbing. The attitude and untruthfulness of some of the officers involved is a contributory factor. It is understandable that because of the events of the day officers were confused, or made mistakes, but one would expect better recall of events by trained police officers. However, there are cases where the evidence shows that certain officers have clearly not told the truth.[87]

            Cass completed work on the report on February, 1980 but the findings remained secret. When an inquest began on April 28, 1980 the report was also kept from the jury. While the family of Blair Peach utilized lawyers for the inquest, the Peach family solicitors found themselves regularly interrupted by coroner John Burton. Burton put forward two extreme theories. First, he said Peach possibly died from a blow from a left wing zealot, who desired a martyr. Secondly, the coroner claimed that Peach’s death at the hands of the police was also a remote possibility. Burton omitted the fact that the Met’s own report found that Peach likely died at the hands of the police.[88]

            While many within the Metropolitan Police wished to put the death of Blair Peach  behind the Department, suspicions lingered. Soon after the riots, many laid the blame on the ANL, SWP, and other groups labeled as communist or extremely left wing. This belief undoubtedly impacted the views many held regarding Peach as detractors sought to tar him with guilt by association. Scotland Yard and Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan quickly blamed outside agitators as stirring the trouble, which led to rioting. Callaghan blamed extremists saying, “There is some evidence that extremists have been coming in from outside the area in order to begin the violence against the police.”[89] Former NF member James Pearce, while rejecting the violence and hatred of his youth, still holds to the idea that radical Marxist groups deserve the blame for the violence. When asked about the motivations of the NF Pearce responded:

To be fair, the National Front had a candidate in the local election and was exercising its democratic right, under electoral law, to hold a public meeting for its candidate. The NF’s position was that its candidate had a right to be heard. The violence against the meeting, at which I spoke, was orchestrated by militant Marxists/Trotskyites, such as the Socialist Workers Party, of which Blair Peach was (I believe) an active member. I don’t believe that the local Asian population would have made much of a fuss without the incitement to violence of the SWP, which was employing its own Trotskyite strategy of stirring up racial and class conflict to destabilize the capitalist society. The NF refused to back down in the face of political violence from its Marxist enemies; hence the stand-off.[90]

           

But, the attempt to blame the ANL and the SWP falls flat when confronted with the facts of    that day. Members of the ANL and the SWP were among the crowd in Southall during the protest and the riot. There is no evidence that the disturbance derived from any outside or that anyone involved in rioting took orders from outsiders. The Southall Defence Committee, a grassroots group formed after the riot took statements from those arrested and found that the majority were local residents. Vishnu Sharma of the SDC refuted those blaming outsiders saying:

You talk about outside troublemakers, yet it was our own community and our people who were involved. You-the police-brought in men from outside Southall who felt nothing for the local people, and that is why much of the violence occurred. And if you are talking about outsiders, what were the National Front doing there. Do they live locally?[91]

 

The Cass report lays to rest the idea that the disturbances originated from outside Southall.     The report maintains that the ANL came to Southall to join the protest,

Asian youths comprised the majority of the crowd but with some white people among them who were members of the ‘Anti Nazi League’ and included the deceased and his friends. There is no actual evidence that the members of the ‘Anti Nazi League’ were encouraging or inciting the throwing of missiles, but they were there to protest and to stimulate others to do so.[92]

 

The young Asians of Southall took great offence at the notion that their actions came from the orders or influence of outsiders. Asians had their own organizations which took the lead in confrontation. For many participants in the riots, their involvement became a point of pride in spite of the violence. For many Asian youth, discrimination was a way of life and the riots demonstrated that they would fight back.[93]

            The death of Blair Peach refused to fade away. For the Asian community of Southall, Peach was a hero who deserved honor. Among many Punjabi Sikhs who prized martial spirit, Peach was a champion who sacrificed his life. Peach’s partner Celia Stubbs refused to give up on getting justice for the father of her children. She continually demanded that all records, including the Cass Report, be released to the public.

Death of Ian Tomlinson from the BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-12856002


    Three decades later, the death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson in 2009 at the hands of the police brought comparisons to the death of Blair Peach.[94] Heading home, Tomlinson found himself tangled up in the police cordon surrounding the 2009 G20 protests and “was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton–wielding police officer in riot gear.”[95] The attack captured on video caused outrage among the public. The officer responsible stood trial for manslaughter for the death; but the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty.[96] The release of the Cass Report came in 2010, a year after the death of Tomlinson, and still remains available on the Metropolitan Police website. The report made it clear that Peach died at the hands of an SPG police officer.

            While the Met released the report in full, the report was redacted to protect the names  of the accused officers and witnesses. The report identified six officers within the SPG carrier U11 which the report labeled officers E, H, G, I, J, and F. Officer E was the senior officer and the one Cass claimed was the likely assailant of Peach.[97] Yet, before the release of the Cass Report, Officer E conducted an interview with the BBC and admitted that he was the officer the report named as the likely killer of Peach. Officer Alan Murray was the officer in charge of U11 but claimed ignorance in the interview regarding how Peach received his fatal injuries. Soon after the inquest into the death of Peach, Murray resigned from the police and pursued an academic career teaching corporate responsibility at Sheffield University. Dr. Murray told the BBC, “under no circumstances, under no circumstances was I involved in the death of Blair Peach. I was not involved in his death. I'm as certain as I can be.”[98] Dr. Murray presently lives in Yorkshire in retirement and is Professor Emeritus at Sheffield University.[99]

            After the release of the Cass Report, Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson offered an apology to the family of Blair Peach, saying it was a “matter of regret” that the force was unable to collect the evidence to convict his killer and that it made for “uncomfortable reading.”[100] Yet the bad publicity did not end for the Met. In 2014, barrister and historian David Renton published a booklet and an article in the London Review of Books, releasing the names of all six SPG officers and detailing their roles during the death of Peach.[101] Soon other media released the names of all six officers. The demand for a new inquiry continues to grow. Media from all political directions decried the lack of justice. An Evening Standard editorial stressed the need for accountability, saying: “There can be little doubt that there are retired police officers that know who killed Mr. Peach, yet they will not speak. That is a disgrace to the uniforms they once wore.”[102] Anniversaries of the riot and remembrances bring continued demands that Inspector Alan Murray and constables White, Freestone, Lake, Richardson and Scottow testify to what happened on April 23, 1979.[103] During the 40th anniversary of Blair Peach’s death, the London Assembly and the mayor of London passed a resolution asking that an unredacted version of the Cass Report be released and urged the Home Secretary to sponsor a new inquiry into the death of Peach.[104]

            Perhaps, the most shameful revelation that emerged after the release of the Cass Report was the knowledge that Scotland Yard spied on the Blair Peach’s partner Celia Stubbs for more than 20 years following his murder. Police spied and recorded the names of individuals attending the funeral of Peach as well as circulating photos of attendees to undercover police.[105] At an inquiry Stubbs testified regarding the distress the surveillance caused and the hidden motives it revealed:

In this regard, I think I am not alone among the people involved with this inquiry, as a grieving person who became the subject of improper surveillance. But given how long ago it occurred, I believe I may have been one of the first cases this Inquiry will consider where this practice was deployed. The fact that Blair's killers have never been brought to justice perhaps speaks to how effective the efforts to protect them were. The surveillance on me and the campaign I was part of may have contributed to how effectively they have been shielded from answering for what they did to Blair.[106]

 

In the wake of the riot, 700 demonstrators were arrested. Three hundred and forty-five faced charges. Ninety-seven police officers and 64 members of the public suffered injuries. Two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five police officers were deployed; 94 of those on horseback. Blair Peach died under circumstances that brought shame and cast on suspicion to the Metropolitan Police.[107] During all the inquiries and investigations, no one testified that Peach ever threw a rock or a bottle, nor did they point to any incident of incitement to riot. Neither the police nor eyewitnesses swore that Peach committed any offense that warranted a physical attack. Blair Peach simply found himself in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

The violence on April 23, 1979, caused a deep wedge of suspicion to develop between  the police and the Southall’s Asian community. The sad consequences of the day’s event caused the enmity that existed between the NF and Asians to transfer to the police and Asians. Jack Dromey, a union official and a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties, witnessed the violence that day and declared, “‘I have never seen such unrestrained violence against demonstrators or such hatred on both sides.”[108] The NF saw the day as a victory. They received the publicity they hungered for and believed the riot would increase their membership. As the main plank of their platform, the NF proposed the compulsory repatriation of all black and Asian immigrants and their offspring.[109]  But the election of 1979 brought Margaret Thatcher and the Tories into power while the NF began to splinter apart. By 1982 the leadership split, and many members drifted into other groups.[110]

Today Blair Peach is remembered and honored by the students at the Blair Peach Primary School in Southall.[111] The school received its name in 1986 over the objections of some Ealing council members that naming the school after Peach furthered community division. In 2019, the Ealing council placed 3 historic plaques in honor of Blair Peach, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, and the reggae band Misty in Roots. In a grotesque response to these events, the plaques were stolen by parties unknown in 2020. They have yet to be recovered.[112]

Plaques for Gurdip Singh Chaggar, Blair Peach and Misty in Roots were put up in 2019 from My London 

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 Endnotes


[1] Maite Tapia, “The United Kingdom: Dialectic Approaches to Organizing Immigrant

Workers, Postwar to 2012” in Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism, Lee H. Adler, Maite Tapia, and, Lowell Turner, eds., (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, ILR Press, 2014), 53. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt5hh1ds.9

[2] Mike Cole, Racism, A Critical Analysis, (London: Pluto Press, 2015), 36.

[3] David Renton, “The Killing of Blair Peach,” London Review of Books, Vol. 36, No. 10, (May 22, 2014), 2. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n10/david-renton/the-killing-of-blair-peach

[4] The Southall High St is sometimes identified as Southall Broadway or Uxbridge Road.

[5] Investigation into the death of Blair Peach, Metropolitan Police, July. 12,1979, sec. 18, p. 33. https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/met/investigation-into-the-death-of-blair-peach/

[6] Stephen Inwood, A History of London, (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998), 411-412.

[7] Inwood, 415.

[8] Vivek Chaudhary, “How London's Southall became 'Little Punjab,'” The Guardian, April 4, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/apr/04/how-london-southall-became-little-punjab-

[9] Noha Nasser, Southall’s Kaleido-scape: A Study in the Changing Morphology of a West London Suburb,” Built Environment, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2004), 80.

[10] Sandhya Shukla, India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 86-87.

[13]Arthur W Helweg, “Punjab Farmers: Twenty Years in England,” India International Centre Quarterly 5, no. 1 (January 1978): 16. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23001628 

[14] Shukla, India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England, 93.

[15] Chaudhary, The Guardian, April 4, 2018.

[16] Brett Bebber, ‘"We Were Just Unwanted": Bussing, Migrant Dispersal, and South Asians in London,’ Journal of Social History, Vol. 48, No. 3, (Spring 2015): 635. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43919790

[17] Bebber, 650.

[18] Gijsbert Oonk, Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), 12. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n1bq.4

[19] Zig Layton-Henry, The Politics of Immigration, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992), 79.

[21] Zig Layton-Henry, 81.

[22] Zig Layton-Henry, 80.

[24] Peter Davies and Derek Lynch, eds., The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2012), 315.

[25] Joseph Pearce to Robert Leverett, April 4, 2022.

[26] Alex Carter, “The Dog That Didn’t Bark? Assessing the Development of ‘Cumulative extremism’ Between Fascists and Anti-fascists in the 1970s,” in ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Us’ The British Far Right since 1967, eds., Nigel Copsey and Matthew Worley (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2018), 91.

[27] "The Lesson of Manchester." The Warwick Boar, Warwick University, Feb. 10, 1976. https://cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/boar/id/928/rec/1.

[28] Joseph Pearce to Robert Leverett, April 25, 2022.

[29] Joseph Pearce, Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love (Charlotte: Saint Benedict Press, 2013), 52-53.

[30] Mike Brake and Gregory Shank, "Under Heavy Manners: A Consideration of Racism, Black Youth Culture, and Crime in Britain," Crime and Social Justice, 20 (1983), 6. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766205.

[31] Inwood, 921.

[32] James Whitfield, Unhappy Dialogue: The Metropolitan Police and Black Londoners in Post-war Britain, (Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willian Publishing, 2004), 181-182.

[33] Whitfield, 182.

[34] Layton-Henry, The Politics of Immigration, 182.

[35] House of Commons Debate, Immigration and Emigration, May 24, 1976. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1976/may/24/immigration-and-emigration

[36]  A.J. McIlroy and Amit Roy, “Threat of New Asian Expulsions: Whitehall tries to stem influx,” The Daily Telegraph, May 17, 1976. https://www.newspapers.com/image/750587986/?terms=Malawi&match=1

[37] Shukla, 102.

[38] Layton-Henry, The Politics of Immigration, 90.

[39] "Blair Peach: Blood on the streets." Red Pepper, November 12, 2014. https://www.redpepper.org.uk/blair-peach-blood-on-the-streets/.

[40] Chaudhary, The Guardian, April 4, 2018.

[41] Zig Layton-Henry, The Politics of Race in Britain, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1984), 112-113.

[42] “Brick Lane 1978,”Libcom.org,  https://libcom.org/files/Brick-Lane-1978.pdf

[43] Carter, 104.

[44]  Anandi Ramamurth, Black Star: Britain's Asian Youth Movements, (London: Pluto Press, 2013), 46.

[45] Anthony M. Messina, Race and Party Competition in Britain, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 110-111.

[46] Messina, 119.

[48] Messina, 119.

[49] Inwood, 922.

[50] Messina, 117.

[52] David Renton, “The Killing of Blair Peach,” London Review of Books, vol. 36, No. 10. May 22, 2014. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n10/david-renton/the-killing-of-blair-peach

[53] Balwinder Rana, “The Day Blair Peach Died-A Personal Account,” Morning Star, https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/day-blair-peach-died-%E2%80%93-personal-account

[56] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh

[57] "Investigation into the death of Blair Peach, Demonstration with Disorder and Death-Southall 23 April 1979" Metropolitan Police. Last modified , 2010,section 3, p.1. https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/met/investigation-into-the-death-of-blair-peach/

[61] "Southall Riots: 23 April 1979," Around Ealing, January 29, 2019. https://www.aroundealing.com/history/southall-riots-1979/.

[62] Investigation into the death of Blair Peach, Demonstration with Disorder and Death-Southall 23 April 1979" Metropolitan Police. Last modified , 2010, section 3, p.2. https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/met/investigation-into-the-death-of-blair-peach/

[65] Ian Hernon, Riot! Civil Insurrection From Peterloo to the Present Day, (London: Pluto Press,2006), 192. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18fs8hm.22

[66] Gerald Bartlett, Guy Rais, and T.A. Sandrock, “300 Arrested at Poll Riot," Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1979, 36. https://www.newspapers.com/image/750863548/

[67] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh.

[68] "Investigation into the death of Blair Peach, Demonstration with Disorder and Death-Southall 23 April 1979" Metropolitan Police, section 3, p.2. https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/met/investigation-into-the-death-of-blair-peach/

[69] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh.

[70] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh.

[71] Chris Searle, “Remembering Blair Peach: 30 years on,” Institute of Race Relations, April 23 2009. https://irr.org.uk/article/remembering-blair-peach-30-years-on-2/

[72] "Blair Peach: Blood on the streets." Red Pepper.

[73] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh.

[74] Standard Reporter, “I Saw a Policeman Hit Peach with a Truncheon,” Evening Standard, May 16, 1980, 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/722035404/?terms=London%20Evening%20News%20%20Parminder%20Atwal&match=2

[78] Hernon, 194.   

[79] Paul Lewis, “Partner of man killed by Met officers calls for investigation to be made public,” The Guardian, June 12, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/12/blair-peach-police-investigation-death

[80] Lewis, The Guardian.

[81] “Southall Riots: “A Personal Reflection,” Around Ealing, January 29, 2019. https://www.aroundealing.com/history/southall-riots-reflection/

[82] Bartlett, Rais, and Sandrock, Daily Telegraph, April 29,1979.

[83] Hernon, 194.

[84] Lewis, The Guardian, June 12, 2009.

[88] Renton, London Review of Books.

[89] "Southall Claims Refuted." The Observer, April 29, 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/image/257789602/.

[90] Joseph Pearce to Robert Leverett, April 3, 2022.

[91] Southall Claims Refuted." The Observer, April 29, 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/image/257789602/

[93] Narvir Singh, Southall 1979: A Film by Narvir Singh.

[94] “Blair Peach: Parallels with Ian Tomlinson are unavoidable. In neither case has Justice been done,” The Times, Apr 28, 2010. The Times Digital Archive, link.gale.com/apps/doc/IF0504060354/TTDA?u=

lln_alsu&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=68ac6c36.  

[95] Paul Lewis, “Video reveals G20 police assault on man who died,” The Guardian, Apr 7,2009. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault

[97] Metropolitan Police, Blair Peach, July 12, 1979.

[98] "Blair Peach 'prime suspect' speaks out," BBC:Newsnight, October 13, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8299015.stm.

[99] Efforts were made to contact Dr. Murray, but he refused contact.

[100] Vivek Chaudhary, "Forty years on, Southall demands justice for killing of Blair Peach," The Guardian, April 21, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/21/southall-demands-justice-killing-of-blair-peach-1979.

[101] Renton, 22 May, 2014.

[102] “Justice still needs to be done for Yard to police London effectively,” Evening Standard, April 27, 2010. https://www.newspapers.com/image/710241898/

[103] Southall Riots: 23 April 1979, Ealing Now. https://www.aroundealing.com/history/southall-riots-1979/

[104] "Blair Peach and the Cass Report." Greater London Authority. June 6, 2019. https://www.london.gov.uk/motions/blair-peach-and-cass-report.

[105] Rob Evans, “Met spied on partner of Blair Peach for more than two decades, inquiry hears,” The Guardian, May 6, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/06/met-spied-on-blair-peach-partner-for-more-than-two-decades-inquiry-hears

[106] In the Matter of the Undercover Policing Inquiry: First Witness Statement of Celia Stubbs as Supplemented, Undercover Policing Inquiry, February 12, 2020. https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/UCPI0000034309.pdf

[108] Hernon, 194.

[109] Hernon, 196.

[110] There was another conflict in Southall between racist skinhead youth and Asian youth in 1981. A number of young whites came to Southall for a concert at the Hambrough Tavern, a pub in Southall. The whites terrorized Asian shops and shoppers and broke windows of local shops. A large number of Asian youth confronted the whites at the tavern and conflict erupted between the Asians, the police, and the skinheads. The night ended with a fire consuming the Hambrough Tavern. Southall: The Birth of a Black Community. (London: Institute of Race Relations and Southall Rights, 1981), 63.

[111] Blair Peach Primary School, https://www.blair-peach.ealing.sch.uk/

[112] “Statement - theft of blue plaques from Southall Town Hall,” Ealing Council, June 19,2020.https://www.ealing.gov.uk/news/article/2014/statement_-_theft_of_blue_plaques_from_southall_town_hall





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