Arriving in the UK in 1959 - the fascinating story of one of the first Asians to settle in Lancashire

Choudhry Mohammed Khan of Mota Sharqi village, District Jhelum in Pakistan, died on February 1.

He died peacefully, with all his immediate family present by his bedside. He was the father to three sons and a daughter, grandad of 22 and a great grandad to 27.

Mr Khan arrived in Blackburn in 1959 after leaving the Pakistan Army, having served in the engineering core. 

He commenced his military service in the army as a teenager in the Boys Brigade, progressing onto the adult ranks and had met well known figures such as the late Lord Mountbatten during his service career. 

He was always proud of his service in the army and regularly narrated the good and difficult times to his loved ones, especially one epic train journey, which everyone in the family has heard him relive. 

This was when he was in the Boys Brigade and the Indo-Pak partition troubles started while he was in Roorkee in India. 

He explained how his unit had spent three full days on a train without food travelling at a snail’s pace, witnessing some heart rendering incidents and atrocities from the train as it travelled through India, and everyone on the train fearing that they would never reach Pakistan alive.

Mr Khan’s first job was in the Tizer drinks factory off Whalley Range in Blackburn, where he worked for a number of years before moving on to many other textile factories in Blackburn as well as the well-known Courtaulds in Preston.

Life in 1960s Blackburn
He was one of the first Pakistani’s to have bought a house in Oak Street in Blackburn in the days when there were no Asian grocery shops in the town and food and poultry had to be bought from Preston, with eventually the first grocery shop being opened up on London Road in Blackburn. 

With son Shaukat Ali 

He has told stories of numerous people residing with him and said that many times he would hear a knock on the door at 3am and on opening he would see people he didn’t recognise with a suitcase telling him that their grandfather was a friend of his grandfather or that they were a Gujjar like him from a nearby village.

He said this link was enough to let them stay in the house as long as they needed to and would help them find work. 

Mr Khan was joined by his family in 1965 residing on Whalley Street followed by stays in the Bastwell area and in Little Harwood before he died. 

He had often talked to his children and grandchildren about life in the 60’s being particularly difficult for many due to the lack of adequate housing, language barriers and no real form of social facilities. 

He explained that even simple things we take for granted these days were a challenge in those days. For example halal chicken and spices would be delivered by van from Preston and if it snowed then at times there would be no deliveries for up to a week and the mundane shopping tasks locally were made more difficult due to language problems. 

He told family members how that if you couldn’t see items on a shop shelf then many people shopped using gestures and sounds.

He often gave the humorous example of one of his friends who had spent a long time making chicken sounds and gestures to the shopkeeper before he eventually realised he wanted to buy some eggs.

With son Parvaiz

Helping to establish links within the community

Mr Khan had played a crucial role in establishing the Pakistani community in Blackburn and had originally purchased the property with another friend, which is now known as Randall Street Mosque in Blackburn. 

Mr Khan and his wife helped many families settle in Blackburn by offering extensive voluntary personal support for those who were new to Blackburn and in furtherance of this mission he was one of the brainchild of the Pakistan Welfare Association (PWA), which was created to fulfil the community needs of Pakistani’s in Blackburn. 

His commitment to the community coupled with the formation of the PWA led to Bangor Street Boys School in Blackburn being converted to Bangor Street Community Centre serving the needs of the Asian community such as marriage facilities, with his own son and nephew’s marriage being amongst the first to take place on Bangor Street Community Centre in the early 70’s.

Mr Khan was not only a respected community leader but also a great believer and a motivator of education, integration and entrepreneurship. 

He has seen his son Dr Tassadaq Hussain serve 14 years in the Royal Air Force with active service in the Falkland’s war and in the first Gulf war, followed by graduation with a doctorate in law. Dr Hussain currently teaches law at the University Centre in Blackburn.

Pride of family’s achievements

Mr Khan has also proudly witnessed many of his grandchildren graduate with degrees and other proud moments including his grandson Sikander Ali Khan being elected Youth MP for Blackburn. 

With son Dr Tassadaq Hussain

As well as encouraging the Pakistani Community and his own family Mr Khan exported stone crushing machinery to Pakistan, which was contracted out from him when the British Embassy was built in Rawalpindi in the early 70’s.

Having established his own family and thriving Pakistani community in Blackburn, Mr Khan then spent a fair amount of time in Pakistan. 

This time he re-invigorated the traditional and regional sport of bull racing (Tombi) in Pakistan, which he helped turn from spectator sport of hundreds into one of thousands. 

He achieved this by building a purpose built well at his own expense for use in annual bull racing competitions, which are now considered prestigious events in which individual bulls worth over £10,000 take part and prizes have ranged from horses, buffalos and motorbikes. 

These annual competitions have attracted high profile dignitaries such as the Governor of Punjab as a spectator and the interest and excitement of these competitions have now spread well beyond the boundaries of Jhelum and people travel hundreds of miles in Pakistan to attend the events.

At his funeral held at Madina Mosque on Oak Street, Blackburn on 2 February around 2000 people attended to say their final farewells. 

Similarly around 600 people, including dignitary’s such as Choudhry Khadum Hussain MNA, attended his family home in Pakistan.