The first Asian Mayor of the Borough of Greenwich has passed away at his home in Coventry.
Gurdip Singh Dhillon was first elected to Greenwich Council in 1978, representing Charlton and later Woolwich Common. He became the Mayor of Greenwich in 1990 and continued to serve on the council until 2002. In 1996 he was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Gurdip’s friend, Councillor Jagir Sekhon, herself a former Mayor of Greenwich, commented, “I’ve known Gurdip for the last 38 years. When I came here in 1968 we were living in rented accommodation and our families met at that time when we were both campaigning through the housing association.”
Councillor Sekhon added: “He was fantastic as a campaigner for the whole community. Nothing was ever too much for him. You could call him up at 2am and he’d be there for you. At the same time, he never said he had done something – he always said that the community has done it!”
Greenwich Council Leader Chris Roberts said, “Gurdip’s motto was always to see a better understanding between the different communities, better race relations and religious tolerance. At the same time, he championed the cause of every part of the Greenwich community. He will always be remembered as the borough’s first Asian Mayor.”.
I wanted to say something, personally, about Gurdip, who was a friend. We were never on the Council at the same time, so I couldn’t talk about that. But I think that he did a great job in acting as a bridgehead for the Sikh community while working hard for everyone else at the same time. I too arrived in Greenwich in the late 1960s – and met Gurdip and Surinder then. They were always very hospitable and my memory tends to be a blur of late nights and hot curries – one of their parties even made it on to national TV – but those occasions were all to flag landmarks like the opening of the Sikh temple/community centre in Calderwood Street. Gurdip was a quiet, soft spoken man (with a measure of never-mentioned disability) but the task he undertook, on behalf of all our communities, was enormous – and we have a lot to thank him for.