Guyanese Gavton Shepherd who spent much of his life here and in the UK helping youths and promoting racial harmony has died in the UK at the age of 76.
According to an obituary that appeared in the UK Guardian newspaper, Shepherd committed much of his life to supporting black youngsters in London and to promoting racial harmony.
The obituary said that he became involved in community work at an early age in British Guiana, and set up a youth club at his mother’s house while he was still a teen. He then became a teacher before moving to the UK in 1961.
His first job there was as an operator at the Balham telephone exchange in south London, but he was determined to follow his earlier career path. In the mid-60s he became a youth leader at Railton Road Methodist church and community centre in Brixton, south London, the obituary said.
The centre, which helped to channel many black youths away from crime, eventually became the Shepherd’s youth club.
With a social administration diploma from the London School of Economics, the Guardian obituary said that in 1972 he became a senior youth and community officer at the Race Relations Board (later the Commission for Racial Equality). He held this post until 1982 and later served as the first black principal race-relations adviser at the CRE, the obituary said.
He was honoured with an MBE in 2003 in recognition of services to community relations in south London.
“Although he commanded huge respect for his diligence and quiet firmness, he went about his business in an unassuming and humble manner, and had the knack of being able to question people about their actions and motives while remaining supportive and non-threatening.
“A religious man who had been a junior chorister at St George’s Cathedral in Guyana during his early years, he became a lay Methodist preacher in London more or less from his arrival, and was fortified by his beliefs when diagnosed with cancer in 2009. He handled his illness with characteristic stoicism and optimism, not to mention an unselfish concern to reassure those around him”, the obituary in the Guardian added.
He is survived by his wife, Eunice, three sons and two granddaughters.
