It was a fine day in Royal Leamington Spa as Balraj Singh Dhesi and his wife, Palweet, rose from bed and made special preparations for the day. It was 24th March 1988 and this was the day that they would meet Queen Elizabeth II as representatives of the residents of the town. We explore how this came about and more about Balraj’s life.
Balraj was born nearly 50 years earlier, in May 1939, in India. His father was a farmer. After schooldays Balraj was in business in India for about two years.
Balraj’s elder brother came to England from India in 1958 and his satisfaction with that decision led to Balraj deciding to follow in January 1962. He simply wanted “to do better in life”. At first he lived in rented accommodation in Southall in Middlesex. Balraj moved to Leamington Spa in 1965. He had several jobs including driving buses for the Midland Red. In a friendly way, he was given the name Ben by many friends and colleagues.
The Commonwealth Club. When Balraj arrived in Leamington he immediately heard about the Commonwealth Club and visited it. The Club had been established by Shree Nath Rohilla in 1964. Balraj found it a pleasant place to socialise and as the owner was proposing to move on, he decided it was a good business opportunity and that he would to try to buy it. Initially Balraj could only buy a half share but in 1966 he became the sole owner when aged just 26. The Club was at No 3 Church Street, a quite imposing Regency style building with a two-tier pillared portico facing the rear of the parish church.
Photo Collection of LHG
This was a busy year for Balraj as he also married Palweet in 1966. At that time he bought ‘the cheapest house in town’ in George Street as home for £1,500. A former mayor visited the club every Sunday and he helped Balraj to obtain an 80% mortgage from the council. Several other councillors also came to the Club.
Thanks to Balraj the Club was successful and popular, especially considering that there were over 100 other licensed premises in the town at the time. There were around 500 or 600 Indians in the town in 1966; the next biggest group of immigrants was the Irish community.
The club had many activities besides drinking and socialising. These included the British favourites, darts and dominoes. Members were mostly Indian, West Indian and Irish with a few English regulars. There was often Indian and Irish music played. People who worked at the nearby Post Office also visited frequently.
Balraj closed the Club in 1996; after 30 years it was no longer needed in the way for which it was established and the members still had the choice of over 100 licensed premises in the town in which to socialise.
Racism. Balraj remembers well that there were some serious racial tensions between the immigrant communities and the local population in the 1960s and 1970s. For example, a swastika was painted on the door of the home of an Indian in Avenue Road. Balraj soon helped to reduce tension and conflict. He found John Hobson, the local MP, and the police very helpful. There was a spate of painting words on bridges and shop windows in High Street by two people. One of them was Robert Relf who was tried and sentenced to jail in 1976. When released he soon moved to Luton. He had been a bus driver for Midland Red for a time. There was little overt racism in Leamington after this.
The Labour government led by James Callaghan introduced Race Relations Councils in 1976 and one of the first of these to be established was in Coventry. People running the group in Coventry helped Balraj to establish a Council in Leamington. He started the organisation with a public meeting and it was very encouraging that around 400 people attended. The local group was soon renamed the local Community Relations Council. It was jointly funded by the government, the county council and the district council. It later changed name and became the Racial Equalities Council and was then chaired by the headmaster of Warwick School, P W Martin.
Balraj noted that from the 1960s many of the immigrants had jobs in manufacturing, mostly labouring work. He hinted that racism was involved in deciding on promotion and it was some years before immigrants obtained more skilled jobs. It was not difficult to get a labouring job at that time. Some Indian doctors who had trained at home also came to the town.
Warwick District Councillor. Balraj found that, from his earliest times in Leamington, people came to him for help with issues relating to education, housing, tax etc and his work with the CRC put him in contact with Labour councillors. He was not a member of a political party. However, he decided to participate fully in local government and in 1983 he stood as a Conservative councillor and was elected in the Willes ward in place of a Labour councillor. There were other Asian councillors in the country already.
He chose to take a broad political view as well as dealing with individual issues raised within the ward. The main national issue which troubled him was the Poll Tax and he found it an especially difficult situation as this was a policy of the national Conservative party. Balraj noted that there was no local agitation against the poll tax because ‘that is not Leamington’s style’. He left the council in 1995.
Mayor of Royal Leamington Spa. Balraj was elected mayor in 1987, having been a councillor for only four years. He was the first Asian mayor of the town.
Photo Chris Lockorish
We now see what was the significant event alluded to in the opening paragraph. Balraj was fortunate in that he realised that his year as mayor was the 150th anniversary of Queen Victoria bestowing the title ‘Royal’ on the town in 1838. And it was also the year of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to open the Royal Priors shopping complex. Balraj arranged for these events to be celebrated by the town with the Queen. The visit was organised so that very many people met the Queen, including Balraj and his wife and 24 previous mayors. The moment when Balraj and his wife appeared on the balcony at the Town Hall with the Queen is for ever embossed in his memory.
Balraj is a Sikh but assisted other religious groups. He said that he was content to worship God in any religious building. For example, he helped the Ahmadiyya, a Muslim group, find premises in Regent Grove (they are now at Riverside). He was also involved with raising funds for a multi-faith group and for education in India.
Balraj was presented with an MBE by Prince Charles in 2008 which recognised his work with the community at national level as well as locally. He formally retired in 2006 but stayed with the Warwickshire Mental Health Trust for a further three years.
He was appointed as High Sheriff for Warwickshire in 2005. This is mainly a ceremonial role to assist the Lord Lieutenant. He is very proud of this recognition of his achievements during his life which began with his birth to a poor family in India.
Conclusion. Balraj says he is lucky to have had such a life and is especially satisfied with his role in running the Commonwealth Club and formal organisations in smoothing race relations. He was particularly pleased to note that Britain had ruled a lot of the world for 300 years but now had an Indian as Prime Minister in 2022, Rishi Sunak.
Balraj Singh Dhesi, 2022, by Mark Ellis
He is proud of the town and also noted that Indian visitors to Leamington Spa like the wide roads, the cleanliness, the shops and the education system.
Balraj Singh Dhesi passed away in March 2025, aged 85.
Footnote. It is important to acknowledge that following after Balraj the town has had four other mayors from immigrant communities. Three born in India – Balvinder Singh Gill (1998-1999 and 2009-2010), Mota Singh (2004-2005) and Kailash Chander (2008-2009), and Yvonne Moore, born in Jamaica (2012-2013).
Acknowledgement
This article was written by Michael Jeffs but it is largely based on an interview with Mr Dhesi by Mark Ellis when he was preparing to make the film ‘Many Cultures, One Town’, for Leamington History Group. To view the film CLICK HERE.