Richard Taylor, who fought for children to live safely and free from violence, died last weekend – and his legacy must not be forgotten.
The loss of Richard has been keenly felt – not least because he was a man who turned his own tragedy into a force for good.
After losing their ten-year-old son Damilola in 2000, parents Richard and Gloria set up the Damilola Taylor Trust in his memory.
They built the Trust on the belief that every child should be able to live their life free from the fear of violence – the very thing that stole their son away.
One of the notable things the charity did was to give vulnerable youths – mainly in inner-city south London – opportunities in work and education to steer them away from criminal paths.
‘Legacy of hope’ – Tributes pour in for Richard Taylor, Damilola’s dad
But aside from opportunity, the Trust was there for victims and their families who had been affected by violent crime. Since his passing, many have come out and spoken of the true humanitarian Richard was. It was clear he did not want anyone to feel alone in their darkest hour.
A close friend of his told us something that summed this up beautifully – that Richard would attend the funerals of ‘nearly every child that died by a gun or knife.’ They had only found this out after he died.
Knife crime has not gone away. Just last month we covered a whole feature on Southwark’s knife crime problem – where we revealed that between November 2020 and December 2023, the borough saw 2,015 knife-related offences.
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We must not forget it is an issue that still needs an advocate, and the incomparable legacy Richard has left, and that his wife Gloria left in 2008 when she died, must be passed on.
What’s more, whilst Peckham itself has seen great change since 2000, if anything the difficult social conditions that can lead to crime are now even more pronounced – with the cost of living crisis and the struggle of local government and outreach groups to do so much more with so much less.
Along with a lesson of resilience and tenacity, Richard has left us with hope.
Hope kept him going when he had lost the dearest thing to him and now that he is at peace – we have a duty as a borough and a country to continue his fight.
