Leaving a legacy of kindness and helping others
A PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY IN TWO LANDS, HARBANS RAN THREE STORES IN ENGLAND AND BUILT A COLLEGE AND STADIUM IN HIS VILLAGE IN INDIA
HE’D started his corner shop in the 1970s, to serve a community of which he was fast becoming a part. It wasn’t easy at first for Harbans Singh Kular, either financially or emotionally, facing hostilities after arriving from his birth country of India.
But the crowds of people who lined up outside to pay their respects as his funeral cortege passed by was a fitting tribute, both to his hard work and success, and the esteem with which he was ultimately held.
Harbans devoted his life to helping and supporting others, whether that was his family, the area he lived in or his home village, Kular, in the Punjab.
And, while his death was sudden and he’ll be missed by many, he leaves a legacy of kindness, love and hope.
“My grandfather worked hard for his family, to offer them a lifestyle and opportunities that he hadn’t had, but he never forgot where he
came from,” says Satveer Kular. “When he retired, he spent months each year going back to the village he was born in and where he was given the duty of mayor. “He was forward-thinking and did a lot to help the village. He neither forgot nor neglected his roots, and he was unselfish in everything he did.” Harbans Singh Kular was one of four children of Dharam Singh Kular and Bant Kaur Kular, brought up in the small village where his family farmed the land. For much
of his early life, his father was away serving in the army in Singapore.
INTELLIGENT
He was an intelligent child who had to walk miles each day to the nearest school to study, but when he left there, Harbans had little choice, initially at least, than to work the land for his family. He married his wife Balbir Kaur in India in 1955 and had two daughters, Amarjit and Manjit
Kaur. They worked hard and opened a clothes shop in the village.
It was after his own father ventured to the UK that Harbans followed in
1962, his wife and daughters joining him a year later. The couple had four more children, Malkiet Singh, Parmjit Singh, Gurdev Singh, and Lukhvinder Kaur, and he began, with hard work and determination, to create the ‘better life’ that he wanted for them all, settling in Newcastle. Harbans moved from West Gate to Gosforth in 1973. He worked as a door-todoor salesman and then as a bus driver before buying a corner shop in Gateshead and the family business, Kular Stores – he went on to have three outlets – was born.
With family members taking pride in working in the stores, he oversaw them all until his retirement.
That was when he and wife Balbir began visiting their home village, helping to run it, thanks to the important position Harbans had been given.
He built a gym and a sports stadium there, created drainage solutions and improved the roads, and established two Sikh temples and a girls’ further education college. “Part of his journey was seeing what life was like here, and taking that back home,” says Satveer. “He hosted eyeoperation camps too, all voluntarily, all out of the goodness of his heart.”
When he was home in Darras Hall, Harbans, a baptised Sikh (he took baptism in the early 1980s) devoted time to his family – he went on to have 20 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren – and his religion. He would carry out a daily prayer ritual and involved himself with his local temple where he was part of the committee.
“He also watched the football, he was a big Newcastle fan,” smiles Satveer.
A JustGiving page for the British Heart Foundation has raised more than £1,700 in Harbans’ memory. “We’re lost without him,” says Satveer. “But we are so proud of him and what he achieved.”
He built a gym and a sports stadium, created drainage solutions and improved the roads and established two Sikh temples and a girls’ further education
college.