A Celebration of Richard Adeyemi Taylor, OBE

A Legacy of HOPE

A service of celebration for Richard Taylor was held in Southwark Cathedral on Saturday 11 May, followed by a reception at the Oasis Academy South Bank

There were musical tributes from Beverly Knight, Jermaine Jackson and the London Community Gospel Choir.

About 400 guest attended including Baroness Doreen Laurence, the Home Secretary, The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley and a representative from the Nigerian High Commission.

Tributes were paid to Richard at the Cathedral: by his son, Tunde, his daughter, Florence, and by representatives of Damilola Youth (the youth board of the Damilola Taylor Trust) and Hope collective members Rio Ferdinand (on behalf of the Rio Ferdinand Foundation) and Ndidi Okezie (CEO of UK Youth). Many further tributes were given at the reception and printed in the Order of Service.

It was Richard’s wish that the work of the Trust should continue after his passing. The Trustees publicly announced the appointment of Tunde Taylor as the new Chair of the Damilola Taylor Trust as part of the Celebration.

The Trust welcomes any help that you can offer, not just money but advice and introductions to others who could help our work.

The three current areas that we are working of are:

• Careers support for deprived young people building on work we have already done in health and medicine, accountancy and City jobs

• The Youth Vaping Challenge where we have begun to scope what the Trust might do in an area that particularly concerned Richard in his last few months

• The Career Pathway for Schools which aims to work with young teenagers in danger of going off the rails and offer then a better path. We have trialled this in schools over three years and are now planning to roll it out to more schools, subject to finance.

You can find out more about the history and plans of the trust on this website, in the Order of Service, by viewing the Trust Tribute Video or by contacting us by email at

If you are able to,we invite you to you give a donation to the Trust through this link to JustGiving