Celebration of man who left his mark on city

Trid Sarkar died at his home in the city last Saturday. He was 68 and had been suffering from progressive heart disease and diabetes since a heart attack in 1983.

The grandfather-of-five was a tireless charity worker and Worcester's first coloured magistrate.

One of his sons, Dilip, described him as "an avid philanthropist".

"He was a pioneering volunteer race relations worker in the city, founding, with my mother, the Worcester International Club in the 1960s and the International Centre in 1980," he said.

"He was the first person to organise English language classes in Worcester for Asian, and in particular Muslim, women.

"In recent times he founded the Friends of Swanivar to support work being undertaken to improve the quality of life within this area of India.

"The work included the creation of schools, provision of agricultural training, and mother and baby care."

He said his father, and his mother - who had overcome agoraphobia to join him on the trip - were due to pay a visit to Swanivar on Thursday, January 3.

Tridibendra Chandra Sarkar was born on November 11, 1933, and came to Worcester in 1951 as an engineering apprentice at Archdales.

He married his wife Janet, a secretary at Worcester Education Office, in 1954.

The couple went to India in 1959, Mr Sarkar working as a design engineer, and his wife as a PA to a top eye surgeon.

Son Dilip, a policeman and Second World War author, was born in 1961, and the family returned to Worcester - where they have lived ever since - the next year. A second son, Neil, was born in 1970.

Although a Hindu by birth, Mr Sarkar converted to the Church of England in the early 1950s, and joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) in the 1970s.

A funeral is due to be held at Worcester Crematorium early in the New Year, and a celebration of Mr Sarkar's life will be held in March at the Friends Meeting House in Sansome Walk, Worcester, where his ashes will be buried.

n Trid Sarkar... tireless worker for charity.