Big Peach funeral

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 3

Big Peach funeral

More than 6000 mourners attended the funeral of Blair Peach at the East London Cemetery yesterday. Mr Peach, aged 33, formerly of Napier, was killed during a demonstration in April against the extreme Rightwing National Front organisation in the west London suburb of Southall. In dull, drizzly weather the 6000 mourners walked almost 5 km from the Phoenix School for Delicate Children, where Mr Peach had been a teacher, to the cemetery., Hundreds of people along the route stopped work and stood in

silence as the procession passed. The huge procession was headed by three hearses, the first two filled with hundreds of floral tributes to i Mr Peach. The third hearse carried the coffin, and was ■ followed by a car in which Mr Peach’s mother and several other relatives rode. , The marchers were led by Mr Peach’s two brothers, Phillip and Roy Peach, who had come from New Zealand < with their wives, and also I Celia Stubbs-Peach, the t woman Mr Peach had lived with for many years. She i was accompanied by her two i children. <

At the request of the Peach family, no protest banner was displayed in the procession. Each of the various groups represented held only one banner. Most mourners, however, wore lapel badges, many proclaiming that Mr Peach had been killed by the Special Patrol Group of the London Metropolitan Police. The Anti-Nazi League, which had organised the demonstration in which Mr Peach was killed, organised the funeral procession. The mourners were quiet and peaceful, and no incident occurred during the one-hour procession.