(SENIOR CLERK - BRITSH GAS, EAST MIDLANDS)
(529)
Born at Bhanvad in the Gujurat State, India on 22 July 1937. His parents moved to Tanzania, in East Africa in 1949 when he was 12 years old.
Educated in Dar-Es-Salaam and in 1958, after taking his Cambridge School Certificate examinations, started work as a clerk and translator in His Majesty’s High Court Office and was later employed as a clerical officer in the Inland Revenue Office.
Married Lalita who came from Nairobi, Kenya in November 1963. They had four daughters: Daksha, Usha, Meena and Chanda and one son, Sunil. Their two youngest daughters and their son were born in Leicester.
Councillor Parmar joined the Labour Party in 1970. He was first elected to the City Council in 1979 as a Labour Councillor for St Margaret’s Ward. Two years earlier he had become the first Asian Councillor to be elected to serve on the Leicestershire County Council. In 1983, Councillor Parmar was elected to represent the Abbey Ward on both the Leicester City Council and the Leicestershire County Council. He later became the representative for the Rushey Mead Ward. He served on a number of Committees of the City Council including Estates, Environmental Health and Public Control, Personnel and Management Services, Planning, Recreation and the Housing Committee of which he was the Vice-Chairman.
Gordhan Parmar was a member of the Jansari Gnati Mandal community.
He served as a Governor of both Abbey Primary and Wolsey House Schools.
He was appointed High Bailiff of the City on 15 May 1986 for the year 1986-87.
Councillor Parmar was elected to the office of Lord Mayor of the City on 21 May 1987 and had the proud distinction of being Leicester’s first Asian Lord Mayor.
He chose his wife Lalita to be his Lady Mayoress. Mrs Parmar was a Home School Liaison Officer at Hazel Street Primary School, having previously worked as a Library Assistant at the Highfields Library in the City.
The highlight of Councillor Parmar’s Year of Office was the privilege of meeting Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who visited Leicester on 5 March 1988 to meet members of St John Ambulance Brigade. The Lord Mayor hosted a Civic Reception in honour of Her Royal Highness.
Councillor Parmar’s Mayoralty will be remembered for the considerable amount of travelling he was required to undertake as the City’s First Citizen. Initially, the Lord Mayor visited the twin city of Strasbourg for a 4 day stay during September 1987.
A highly significant overseas visit took place between 30 January and 13 February 1988 when Councillor Parmar undertook an official visit to the City of Rajkot in the Indian State of Gujurat. It was the Lord Mayor’s first visit to the country of his birth since he left India nearly forty years earlier. He visited his birthplace in the village of Bhanvad some 75 miles from Rajkot. For the Lady Mayoress it was her first visit to her mother country.
On 29 April 1988, Councillor Parmar visited the twin city of Krefeld. During the four day visit, at a special ceremony, the Lord Mayor’s Secretary, Stanley Smith received the ‘Freedom of the City of Krefeld’ for outstanding services to the Twinning arrangements between the two cities. In doing so he became the first non-German citizen to receive this rare honour. During the Mayoral Year, Mr Smith received a further distinction when he became an “Honorary Citizen of Strasbourg” for similar Twinning Services.
On 27 September 1987, the Oberburgermeister of Krefeld, Herr Dieter Putzhofen led a delegation from the twin city on a civic visit to Leicester.
The Lord Mayor received Councillor Michael O’Brien, Chairman of Kilkenny County Council at the Town Hall, on 28 September 1987 and, seven months later he received the Mayor and representatives from the Irish Town of Kilkenny on 8 April 1988.
The Lord Mayor also visited Kilkenny during early April 1988. The aim of the two day visit was to strengthen the links between Leicester and the Irish town.
The City’s military links were maintained with official visits by Councillor Parmar, during February 1988, to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment at Celle in the Federal republic of Germany and to the 47th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery at Gutersloh close to the border with East Germany. During his visit to Germany, the Lord Mayor visited the former concentration camp at Belsen where he laid a wreath, in the shape of the Star of David, on behalf of the people of Leicester, in memory of all those who died there during the Second World War.
During Councillor Parmar’s Year of Office he hosted a Civic Reception on 4 November 1987, to mark the 20th Anniversary of the launching of BBC Radio Leicester, the first local Radio Broadcasting Station to be established in the United Kingdom.
The Lord Mayor’s Appeal was for a £100,000 to equip a new Endoscopy Unit at the Leicester General Hospital. The total amount realised by the Appeal was £130,000 and the unit was named ‘The Gordhan Parmar Endoscopy Suite.’
Councillor Parmar’s Year of Office was concluded on 19 May 1988 whereupon he was appointed Deputy Lord Mayor for the year 1988-89.
He died on 6 December 1997, whilst on a cross-channel ferry to France, aged 60 years.
