On Friday 05 January 2024, all the members of the Club who did not have prior commitments elsewhere made their way to the Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip to bid farewell to their former member and Past President, Amrit Lal Mediratta.
Amrit had had a distinguished career in Architecture including his work on the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha- which had brought him into contact with the late Queen and Prince Philip in 2004 – as well as a career in politics.
He was also a qualified accountant.
In July 2007, Amrit addressed the topic of Climate Change with a selection of map and drew the Club’s attention to the consequences of nothing being done at the time to address the issues which the world is now facing.
In June 2011, Amrit was back with a report on what was happening in Europe and in the Council of Europe, where he was Vice President of the Sustainable Development Sub-committee. The Council of Europe was an advisory body that pre-dated the Coal and Steel Community (which was the start of the Common Market). It provided advice to the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states. The Council of Europe was established to advance Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law. The Council of Europe is not the European Union, and not the European Parliament, or even the European Commission, and so works relatively independently. The UK was represented with 18 Council Members. Since 2006, Amrit had been a Rapporteur on the project dealing with Climate Change. To illustrate the workings of the Council, Amrit played a video showing the debate prior to the adoption of the sub-committee’s report on Climate Change, a debate in which he took a prominent part. This is a fascinating subject, and many members agreed that we ought to know more about the workings of Europe
Amrit had joined the Rotary Club of Northwick Park in 1982-1983, and had served as Club President in 1993-1994. Amrit had been elected to the Harrow Borough Council for the Greenhill Ward in 1998, and in 2004 and 2008 and 2012 he had been elected to the Three Rivers District Council for the Moor Park and Eastbury Ward and had served as the Three Rivers Mayor.
He will be greatly missed by all the members of the Club.
