Gloria Taylor

Apr 11 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THEY were such respectable, God-fearing people professionals, who believed in the values of family, education, trust, respect, smart clothes, polished shoes and standing up when a teacher entered the room.

In an earlier age, they would have been called the “bricks” in a decent community. But this was a different age.

Their son was a fine little boy with keen eyes and a high forehead. To have been a doctor, healing in his own land, would have been good, he thought.

He must have been disappointed by what he saw when he came to this country. Back home in Nigeria, someone had said England was “Heaven” – a strange heaven, indeed.

But little Damilola Taylor had the optimism of childhood, so in an essay he wrote that he wanted to be “the best” at whatever he did.

Not long after that he was cradled, bleeding to death, in the arms of a workman at the bottom of a stained, concrete stairwell in a block of flats in Peckham. He had staggered there after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle, fatally severing his femoral artery. A marble had been stuffed into his throat, probably to stop his cries being heard.

Damilola had been returning home from a library, not a place frequented by the brothers, aged 12 and 13, who were, after three trials, convicted of his manslaughter and jailed for eight years.

In the history of immigration to these shores, the story of 10-year-old Damilola’s death was one of the saddest.

His mother, Gloria, wanted justice for her dead son. During the long ordeal, her dignity reached souls and her restraint stirred shame in the host community.

In Lagos, she had been a bank manager. Her husband, Richard, was a civil servant. When their daughter Beme’s epilepsy was discovered, she was sent to London for treatment, staying with an aunt, where she was joined by Gloria, Damilola and his brother.

Although the medical treatment was not available in their country, the Taylors had hardly come up in the world, living in a cramped flat in Peckham.

Despite taunts and bullying, Damilola wrote of his hopes in essays. He was stabbed in November, 2000. In her quiet grieving, Gloria Taylor emerged as a proud and eloquent advocate of decency and people admired her so much for that.

Gloria Taylor, mother; born 1950, died April 8, 2008.