On Saturday, the city said goodbye to Randhir Singh Wahiwala, fondly referred to as “Uncle Wahiwala, who passed away on January 20, aged 84.
The Wahiwala name is synonymous with Peterborough and globally recognised due to the Wahiwala group of companies that were established in in 1960, specialising in importing, exporting and manufacturing, as well as his extensive and nameless acts of charity.
He was best known in Peterborough for his shop on the corner of Cromwell Road and Russell Street, called Wahiwala and Co, established in 1967-68. The shop was open for over 40 years, until 2007, and was the largest reseller of Freemans catalogue goods (clothes, furniture and electricals) in the UK.
He ran many business ventures, including becoming a Fanyo main dealer, importing glassware from Italy in the 1970s and the 1980s and 90s, selling kitchenware. The group also became the largest distributors of Indian, Bollywood and Bhangra cassettes and CDs in East Anglia and supplied all Indian restaurants in the city with catering equipment and tableware.
He was also involved in several charitable causes. In 1974, Mr Wahiwala donated a home, 1t 184 Cromwell Road, in order to, create the city’s first Gurdwara for the local Sikh community to worship in.
The Gurdwara Sahib was extended with the purchase of the 186 Cromwell Road in 1985, creating a larger prayer hall and langar hall. It remained in use for 30 years until the time came that a larger purpose-built Gurdwara was required. It can still be seen today with its ornate railings.
He was also instrumental in the setting up of the city’s first mosque, on Cromwell Road, with an open donation. He followed this up with a donation to the Hindu samaj (community) towards the Mandir temple on Rock Road.
Mr Wahiwala was a close friend of the late Rev Richard Paton and made regular donation to Peterborough Cathedral.
He was also known by Peterborough City Council as one of the biggest landlords of the Windrush generation in Peterborough.
As a Sikh, he was a strong believer in nameless charity and saw the world and everyone as one, without looking at gender, skin colour or anything else..
As well as this, he was well known for caring for the elders of the community. In the late 1977-78, the felt that the elder generation were not being cared for as well as they could have been and that it was his duty to so, instead of being a bystander.
So, he opened his first residential home for the elderly, called the Evergreen rest home at 128 Lincoln Road. In the 1980s, he opened Star Residential on Star Road.
On Saturday, the funeral procession travelled from Mr Wahiwala’s home on Thorpe Road to Cromwell Road, before arriving at Gurdwara Baba Budha Sahib Ji on Royce Road.
This is where the hundreds of mourners had gathered for the funeral service.
Once at the crematorium, Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and Chair of the Peterborough Interfaith Council Dr Jaspal Singh DL, former Mayor of Peterborough Cllr Gul Nawaz, Cllr Ansar Ali, Pritpal Singh OBE, Sukhwant Singh and his four grandchildren Manvinder Singh Bhatti, Shalendar Singh Bhatti, Miss Amanjot Wahiwala and Amardeep Singh were among those who made speeches in tribute to Mr Wahiwala.
His sons and daughter have continued on the Wahiwala Group of companies and run many renowned businesses such as Ice Direct in Fengate, specialising in car audio.
Mr Wahiwala’s son Sukhi said: “Since his passing, so many people have come out of nowhere to tell us that my dad paid for their house, helped their family move over, helped them start a business, paid their fees to become a doctor and so on.
“It was amazing the amount of people from different communities have told me stories about my dad’s generosity.
“One of them said to me, ‘there are many people born to unite a community but very few born to unite communities.’
“As his children, dad has left a legacy that we believe will be hard to attain the lofty heights of but we will be continuing his legacy of helping others and keeping communities together.”
