I was privileged to work with the Rev Ken Leech at the Runnymede Trust, a research and information body concerned with racism and discrimination, between 1987 and 1990, during which time he oversaw the relocation of the organisation from its comfortable central London location to Princelet Street, then at the heart of the Bangladeshi community in the East End, just a few doors down from where my relatives had lived in the 1920s and 30s. This reflected Ken’s desire to shift Runnymede’s priorities towards directly servicing community organisations bearing the brunt of racism.
As rector of St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green, in the late 1970s, he played a crucial role in helping to mobilise East End communities and activists against the growing threat posed to Bangladeshis by the National Front. Ken received a bullet through the post for his troubles. He later recorded this local campaign in his publication, Brick Lane 1978: The Events and Their Significance.
Ken was an activist and a thinker. He left a substantial body of theoretical work from the 1960s onwards, demonstrating how the framing of the immigration “debate”, and the harsh policies adopted by various governments, were fuelling racism and intolerance within Britain’s civil society.
A wonderful, warm, gregarious human being, with a dry sense of humour, and a phenomenal memory for individuals and events, he was much loved by those who had the fortune to work, campaign and spend time with him.
