|
Sadly Guru Seehra, past Kent Hockey Association Secretary, passed away on the 7th of August.
Guru Seehra was born in India on 19th April 1936 and moved to Kenya in early February 1948 to join my father with other family members.
After completing secondary school, he trained as a teacher and was awarded a scholarship by the Government to attend Loughborough College in England in 1959-60. He taught in Nairobi once his studies at Loughborough were complete and then in the UK upon his arrival here with his family in 1975.
His interests were sports and helping the needy and amongst his many accomplishments in Kenya were climbing Mount Kilimanjaro not once, but twice.
He revised the old boys' society, called the COGS, to raise funds for a library, playing fields, and swimming pool and started the 50 Kilometres walk, which was included in the Kenya Athletics Association Calendar for the Olympics.
He joined the Lions International Organisation to help with charitable work for Dr. Barnardos Childrens' Home and Thika School for the Blind.
He also started helping the Kenya Hockey Union with the national team.
His accomplishments in England included:
Running the Youth Centre for the Ramgarhia Association in Woolwich which gave him an opportunity to start a local hockey team.
Became an assistant examiner for CDT for the London and East Anglian Exam Board till his voluntary retirement from ILEA in September 1988.
Started the annual Greenwich Hockey Festival in 1983.
Became a full time Umpire and a Kent League Secretary for 3 years.
He then ran a Punjabi School in Woolwich which he expanded to include sewing classes; a Pre-school; IT; Indian Classical Musical sessions; Youth Groups; Gatka (Punjabi fencing) sessions; and English.
As a reward for all his hard work in the community he received an MBE from HRH Prince Charles in May 2005.
|
