Damilola Taylor’s father Richard with his wife, Gloria (Picture: Chris Young/PA Wire)
Richard Taylor’s son was left for dead in a dirty and abandoned stairwell in Peckham, south-east London, after he was slashed with a broken beer bottle.
His family had only months before arrived in the capital from Nigeria so his daughter could receive treatment for her epilepsy.
And he would spend the next two decades fighting against knife crime to ensure underprivileged children enjoy better lives.
Richard Taylor, the father of schoolboy Damilola Taylor who was just 10 when he was murdered, died on Saturday. He was 75.
A statement issued on behalf of Taylor’s family said: ‘It is with a heavy heart that the family announce the death of our beloved father, grandfather and uncle, Mr Richard Adeyemi Taylor OBE, who sadly passed away in the early hours of Saturday 23 March at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer.’
Richard ‘never stopped fighting’ to inspire future generations, as one MP who knew him said – this is his story.
Richard Taylor simply wanted the best for his family
A former Nigerian civil servant, Richard’s wife Gloria Taylor and three children moved to London from Isashi, a Nigerian village on the outskirts of Lagos in August 2000. Richard remained behind in nearby Abuja for work.
They had their reasons to leave Nigeria. The couple’s daughter, Gbemi, was suffering from a form of epilepsy so severe she was unable to walk and lost her memory, and Gloria felt Britain’s healthcare system could help her.
Damilola Taylor was murdered at the age of just 10 (Picture: PA/PA Wire)
It was a better option, she felt, than what Richard had been doing: spending a month’s wages on medicine on the black market amid a nationwide shortage.
London was a place the family knew well, with Richard and Gloria having spent 10 years there after arriving in the mid-1970s as students before having their son, Tunde. After the Taylors saved £5,000, Richard watched as his wife, daughter and two sons Damilola and Tunde left for London.
Weeks later in November, Richard received a phone call from Damilola – it would be their final conversation.
‘Daddy, they are beating me,’ he quoted his son as saying of the bullying he faced at Oliver Goldsmith primary. ‘You must come to London now.’
Richard, a manager with the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, told his son he would be home for Christmas.
‘My beautiful, beautiful boy’
Richard spent decades doing what he could to inspire and motivate disadvantaged young people (Picture: Shutterstock)
On November 27, Damilola left a computer class at a local library 600 feet from his home. CCTV footage showed him skipping across the promenade.
But while taking a shortcut through Blakes Road between two empty North Peckham Estate flats, the studious boy was attacked. He was left with a deep wound in his leg that severed his femoral artery, a major vessel that pumps blood to the legs.
At least 10 people walked past him and did not stop to help the boy, who was slumped near a lift inside a building set to be demolished, the police said.
It was only when workmen found him that he was taken to King’s College Hospital and later pronounced dead.
Richard found himself booking a far earlier flight to London than planned. ‘Oh my God, oh my God,’ he said between sobs in front of the bouquet-laden stairwell where his son died.
‘My beautiful, beautiful boy.’
His son’s killers finally face justice
Danny Preddie (left) and his brother Ricky Preddie. Danny Preddie, 18, were both convicted of manslaughter (Picture: PA)
Damilola’s death caused national outrage and revulsion, becoming one of London’s most high-profile killings.
After three crown court trials, his killers, brothers Ricky and Danny Preddie, were put behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter.
Richard would go on to say he ‘could never forgive the Preddie brothers’.
But between the court dates and tabloid spreads debating the impact of Damilola’s death was Richard, a dad who hoped to see his son grow up to become a medical professional.
Now, what Richard hoped for from his son was that he would be remembered as a boy of hope.
He and Gloria set up a charity in their son’s memory, the Damilola Taylor Trust, with the help of the footballer and Peckham local Rio Ferdinand in 2001.
‘Young people can feel unsure or apathetic about their future, and a lack of guidance and ambition can make them vulnerable to social circles that promote anti-social values,’ the trust says on its about page.
‘We provide them with opportunities to pursue jobs that they might not usually consider such as finance and medicine, sponsor awards to celebrate their achievements, and raise awareness of the key issues affecting them.’
Shaking hands with prime ministers
In the decades after founding the trust, Richard would shake hands and work together with, among many others, royalty, prime ministers, government officials, footballers, police bosses, community leaders and countless young people.
By 2012, Richard was awarded an OBE – an achievement his wife did not live to see, having died in 2008.
Receiving an OBE didn’t surprise anyone who knew him. Richard, on the other hand, was slightly taken aback.
Richard was awarded an OBE for his work (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘It was a really big surprise to get the letter congratulating me on being given the honour,’ he said. ‘People have asked me whether I’m going to get [an OBE] over the years and I just thought, when the time came it would be given.’
On the 20th anniversary of Damilola’s killing, Richard, now 72, decided now was the time to scale back his work.
‘It’s time for me to hand over to a younger generation,’ he said. ‘I’ve done my bit. Twenty years has taken a toll on me.’
The Damilola Taylor Trust would carry on inspiring young people through career pathways schemes, mentoring programmes and the ‘Hope Legacy Campaign’ which, rather simply, shines a light on the achievements of youth.
In Richard’s death, those who knew him described him as an inspiring figure who ‘never stopped fighting for other children to have the chances his beloved Damilola never got’, as Peckham and Lambeth MP Harriet Harman said.
Labour Brent Central MP Dawn Butler said her ‘deepest condolences goes out to the family of Richard Taylor’.
‘He was a great man and a dear friend,’ she said in a tribute on X.
‘He always had such kind words of wisdom for me. I will miss him. May he rest in eternal peace and may he be reunited with Damilola in heaven.’
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