Thamotheram, social activist, passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 November 2005, 02:39 GMT]
Mr C J T Thamotheram, social activist and an expatriate doyen of Tamils in England, passed away on Thursday. Son of Mr CP Thamotheram who was a principal at Hartley College (1915 - 1943), CJT Thamotheram was a student and teacher at Hartley College, Point Pedro, and later teacher at Latymer Upper School in U.K.

Mr Thamotheram devoted his years in U.K working on Tamil issues and developed several initiatives among the Tamil expatriates. He established the first Tamil School at Greenford - the West London Tamil School. He was among those actively involved in the formation of the Standing Committee of Tamils (SCOT) in 1977. In October 1981 he founded the monthly Tamil Times which served as the voice of the Tamil expatriate community for many years. He then set up the League of Friends of the Jaffna University and went on to initiate a think tank - International Tamil Foundation(ITF).

Earlier this year, despite poor health, he launched the Tamil Writers' Guild.

The funeral service takes place on Friday 4th November at 11.00 AM at the Rivercourt Methodist Church, King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9JT. The funeral will be followed by a private family cremation. Those wishing to pay their final respects could do so at Henry Paul (Funeral Directors), 3 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, London W7 3PX, on Wednesday 2nd/ Thursday 3rd November between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

He is survived by his widow Florence (Malar), his sons, Vijay, Priya, and Raj, daughters Sunetra, Thiru and Shantini, six grand children and two great grand children.

Family requests not to send flowers but encourages making donations made payable to 'White Pigeon', (Registered Charity) to the Henry Paul address.