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My Uncle Granville
This was on the website of my home towns paper The Oldham Chronical so i just had to post it. I didnt know that he'd done so much. My Uncle Granville 
Tributes flood in for race equality chief
Granville Lawrence: tributes
TRIBUTES have been pouring in for an outstanding pioneer of the race equality movement in Oldham.
Granville Lawrence, a founder member of Glodwick and then Oldham West Indian Association, died peacefully at his home in Barker Street on Wednesday. He was 83.
Mr Lawrence had been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas in November. He leaves behind his partner of nearly 40 years, Pat Payne, six children, a step-daughter, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mr Lawrence was born in Jamaica and moved to Britain in the 1950s.
He originally lived in Nottingham where he was a founder member of the West Indian Nationals Association.
His contribution to other Nottingham-based organisations was described as outstanding. He then left the city for Bradford, before finally settling in Oldham.
A member of the GMB union, Mr Lawrence worked for British Vita and was a shop steward.
He was a key figure in community relations following the introduction of the Race Relations Act in the 1960s, and was also involved with the Afro-Carribean Project and Oldham Race Equality Partnership.
Friend, Ivan Padmore, worked with him on several organisations.
Mr Padmore said: “Granville was a doer — he wasn’t one of those people who waited for someone else to do something.
“He made sure the interests of the West Indian community were put to the forefront — we tended to be ignored as a small community — but without particular distinction.
“As a group, we never said that we were the only people who mattered. He recognised that the whole of Oldham was bigger than its parts and that the only way we would move forward was if everyone worked together.”
In 1997, Mr Lawrence warned that Government housing grants would create ethnic minority ghettos in Oldham and also highlighted racial tensions in Glodwick.
This was four years before the town’s riots, with segregation later blamed as one of the causes.
Councillor Riaz Ahmad, former mayor of Oldham, knew Mr Lawrence well.
He said: “He was a mentor to people like me who learned a lot from him. His commitment was immense and he will be sorely missed.”
Mr Lawrence’s funeral details have yet to be finalised.
Tributes flood in for race equality chief
Granville Lawrence: tributes
TRIBUTES have been pouring in for an outstanding pioneer of the race equality movement in Oldham.
Granville Lawrence, a founder member of Glodwick and then Oldham West Indian Association, died peacefully at his home in Barker Street on Wednesday. He was 83.
Mr Lawrence had been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas in November. He leaves behind his partner of nearly 40 years, Pat Payne, six children, a step-daughter, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mr Lawrence was born in Jamaica and moved to Britain in the 1950s.
He originally lived in Nottingham where he was a founder member of the West Indian Nationals Association.
His contribution to other Nottingham-based organisations was described as outstanding. He then left the city for Bradford, before finally settling in Oldham.
A member of the GMB union, Mr Lawrence worked for British Vita and was a shop steward.
He was a key figure in community relations following the introduction of the Race Relations Act in the 1960s, and was also involved with the Afro-Carribean Project and Oldham Race Equality Partnership.
Friend, Ivan Padmore, worked with him on several organisations.
Mr Padmore said: “Granville was a doer — he wasn’t one of those people who waited for someone else to do something.
“He made sure the interests of the West Indian community were put to the forefront — we tended to be ignored as a small community — but without particular distinction.
“As a group, we never said that we were the only people who mattered. He recognised that the whole of Oldham was bigger than its parts and that the only way we would move forward was if everyone worked together.”
In 1997, Mr Lawrence warned that Government housing grants would create ethnic minority ghettos in Oldham and also highlighted racial tensions in Glodwick.
This was four years before the town’s riots, with segregation later blamed as one of the causes.
Councillor Riaz Ahmad, former mayor of Oldham, knew Mr Lawrence well.
He said: “He was a mentor to people like me who learned a lot from him. His commitment was immense and he will be sorely missed.”
Mr Lawrence’s funeral details have yet to be finalised.
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