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My grandfather Kartar Singh Parhar, who has died aged 92, was a Royal Mail worker who became a Labour party councillor in Slough, Berkshire, in the early 1980s. He was deputy leader for a period, and mayor of Slough in 1988 and 1989, becoming the first person from a south Asian or Sikh background to hold that office.
Kartar was born in Kalra village in the Jalandhar district of Punjab in pre-partition India, as one of the seven children of Joga Singh, a farmer, and his wife, Rakhi Kaur. After secondary schooling, in the early 50s he gained a degree in politics and then a master’s in the same subject at Panjab University in Jalandhar, before spending a decade as a teacher and then travelling to the UK in 1966 at the age of 34. He brought over his wife, Amar, and four children once he had settled down in the early 70s.
As Kartar’s qualifications were not transferrable to the UK, he had to find work initially in a bakery in Slough, and then became a postman at Royal Mail, where he worked until retirement in 1997, latterly as a supervisor at the Slough sorting office.
A staunch socialist, he was involved in trade union organising at Royal Mail, and soon became immersed in local politics, representing the Baylis ward in Slough for almost two decades up until 1999. He also chaired the planning and transportation committee and represented the council on the Slough Multicultural Council executive, the Slough Post Office Advisory Committee and the Slough and District Sport Association for Disabled People.
He continued to keep in touch with local politics until his death, and his views were sought out by councillors, as well as by the local MP, Tan Dhesi.
Like many Sikhs, Kartar cut his hair short on arrival in the UK to help him secure work. After retirement he grew his hair again and proudly wore his turban.
Amar died in 2023. He is survived by their four children, Raj, Pirthipal, Rajindar and Rani, by me and nine other grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
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