Grant , Bernard Alexander Montgomery , 1944-2000 , politician

Born Georgetown, Guyana, February 1944, educated at St Joseph's RC, Sacred Heart and Ituni Government Schools, and at St Stanislaus College; analyst in the Demerara Bauxite Company, Guyana; moved to Britain in 1963; employed as a railway clerk, then enrolled at Tottenham Technical College, 1965-67, studied Mining Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 1967-1969; international telephonist, including work for the Union of Post Office Workers, 1969-1978; full time Area Officer for NUPE, responsible for its local authority and health workers, 1978-1981; helped establish the Black Trades Unionists Solidarity Movement (BTUSM), and worked for it, 1981-1984; joined the Tottenham Labour Party, 1973; elected a councillor, 1978; Leader of Haringey Council, London, 1985, and in this position achieved national recognition during the disturbances on Broadwater Farm Estate in 1985; elected to Parliament in 1987 as one of the first Black MP's in modern times; founded the Parliamentary Black Caucus, and took up a leading role in establishing contacts with black people and politicians throughout the world; accompanied the Reverend Jesse Jackson to South Africa, greeting Nelson Mandela on the day of his release in 1990; Chairman of the All Party Group on Race and Community, and of the British Caribbean Group; member of the Select Committee on International Development, 1997, and the Home Secretary's Race Relations Forum, 1998; founded the Standing Conference on Racism in Europe in 1990; established the Africa Reparations Movement in Britain; founded the Global Trade Centre, 1995; died, 2000.