Death of Kevin Gately

The University of Warwick has a collection of documents relating to the aftermath of Gately's death. In 2019 the university's student union named one of its meeting rooms after Gately. The union have a mural commemorating him in their main building.

A public inquiry into the events was conducted by Lord Scarman. He found no evidence that Gately had been killed by the police, as had been alleged by some elements of the hard-left press, and concluded that "those who started the riot carry a measure of moral responsibility for his death; and the responsibility is a heavy one". He found fault with some actions of the police on the day. The events in the square made the National Front a household name in the UK, although it is debatable if this had any impact on their share of the vote in subsequent general elections. Although the IMG was heavily criticised by the press and public, there was a rise in localised support, and the willingness to demonstrate against the National Front and its policies. There was further violence associated with National Front marches and the counter-demonstrations they faced, including in Birmingham, Manchester, the East End of London (all 1977) and in 1979 in Southall, which led to the death of Blair Peach. After Peach's death, the Labour Party Member of Parliament Syd Bidwell, who had been about to give a speech in Red Lion Square when the violence started, described Peach and Gately as martyrs against fascism and racism.

Scarman's inquiry into the events sat for 23 days between 2 September and 2 October; 57 witnesses gave evidence, comprising 19 police officers, 17 demonstrators, 12 journalists, 5 residents or by-standers and 4 others. The report was published in February 1975. Scarman interpreted the breaching of the police cordon in Red Lion Square as a riot, from the legal definition of the term, which allowed the police a wider scope of possible responses to take, including the use of reasonable force. In regards to Gately's death, he wrote:

In October 1975, after Scarman had finished taking evidence but before his findings were published, the NUS published the booklet "The Myth of Red Lion Square". In it, they wrote Gately "died as a direct result of a police attack using batons and horses". Scarman thought the publication prior to his findings was "an affront to the inquiry"; he was troubled by the fact that William Wilson, the MP for Coventry South East had provided an introduction for the book.

On 15 June 1974 the National Front, a far-right, fascist political party, held a march through central London in support of the repatriation of immigrants. The march was to end at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square. A counter-demonstration was planned by Liberation, an anti-colonial pressure group. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the London council of Liberation had been increasingly infiltrated by hard-left political activists, and they invited several hard-left organisations to join them in the march. When the Liberation march reached Red Lion Square, the International Marxist Group (IMG) twice charged the police cordon blocking access to Conway Hall. Police reinforcements, including mounted police and units of the Special Patrol Group forced the rioting demonstrators out of the square. As the ranks of people moved away from the square, Gately was found unconscious on the ground. He was taken to hospital and died later that day. Two further disturbances took place in the vicinity, both involving clashes between the police and the IMG contingent.

In mid-April 1974 the National Front booked the large theatre room at Conway Hall, a meeting house owned by the Conway Hall Ethical Society on Red Lion Square in central London. The meeting was on the subject "Stop immigration—start repatriation", and was in response to plans by the Labour government to repeal parts of the Immigration Act 1971. The repeal would have given illegal immigrants leave to remain in the UK. The National Front had booked the room for meetings in the previous four years; the meeting in October 1973 had been picketed by demonstrators, leading to scuffles, injuries and arrests. In early May the National Front sent their plans for their march and meeting to the Metropolitan Police. They allowed for 1,500 members on 15 June from Westminster Hall to 10 Downing Street to deliver a petition to Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, and then continue to Conway Hall for the meeting.

The London Area Council of Liberation was contacted by a journalist on 4 June and informed about the National Front's plans. Two days later Liberation called a meeting to arrange a counter-demonstration; among those invited were several hard-left organisations, including the CPGB, International Socialists (IS; later known as the Socialist Workers Party), the Workers Revolutionary Party, Militant Tendency and the International Marxist Group (IMG). As with the National Front, these groups were prepared to use violence against their political opponents to gain an advantage; Sir Robert Mark, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1974, described the coalition of groups as "not a whit less odious than the National Front". Liberation also booked the smaller assembly room at Conway Hall for 15 June, to coincide with the National Front meeting. The booking caused consternation among some members of Liberation, and with the National Union of Students (NUS), who asked Liberation to cancel the meeting.

On 15 June 1974 the police on duty at Red Lion Square were under the control of deputy assistant commissioner John Gerrard. He had allocated four foot police serials—100 officers—to the National Front march and four to Liberation march. There were seven foot police serials in Red Lion Square, plus ten in reserve—two in Dane Street and eight in Bloomsbury Square. Also in reserve were four Special Patrol Group (SPG) units, comprising 112 officers, held near Holborn police station. Two mounted units were also on duty, both in Red Lion Square. In total during the day were 711 foot police and 25 mounted police; with additional support, traffic and CID officers, there were 923 police deployed to marshal the two marches.

The post-mortem took place on 16 June 1974 and was conducted by Iain West. He noted some bruising on Gately's face, and one behind the ear: "There was a small roughly oval bruise on the left side of the scalp about .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1+1⁄4 inches behind and slightly below the middle of the back of the left ear, 3⁄4 inch in diameter. The bruising extended through all the layers of the scalp." He concluded "Death has resulted from compression of the brain by a large subdural haemorrhage resulting from a head injury ... The bruise ... could have been caused by a blow by or against a hard object, resulting in the formation of a subdural haemorrhage." When later asked what could have caused the bruise, he said "It didn't look particularly like a truncheon injury—it looked more like an object with a rougher surface. That appeared to be the only significant injury on his body ... it seemed most likely to me that he'd been knocked over and struck his head on the curb or been hit by a piece of sawn timber".

On 17 June, Bidwell—who was also chairman of the London Council of Liberation—and John Randall, the president of the NUS, separately called for a public inquiry into the conduct of the police. The police welcomed any inquest into the events that took place. Gately was buried on 21 June at St Raphael's Church, Surbiton, the church in which he had been baptised. The same day, 500 students, all wearing black armbands, marched through Coventry, the home town of the University of Warwick. To support the call for an inquest, the NUS held a silent march in London on 22 June 1974. The family asked that the marchers did not carry banners, so only one was shown, at the front of the march, that read "Kevin Gately was killed opposing racism and fascism". About 8,000 people took part in the march, which was described by the journalist Jeremy Bugler as "a dramatic contrast to last week's battle. Almost completely silent, it was perfectly disciplined".

The inquest into Gately's death was opened on 19 June 1974 and adjourned until July. The full hearing took place on 11 and 12 July; because of the public interest in the matter, a jury was appointed. None of the witnesses saw Gately receive any blow to the head. One student told the inquest he saw Gately sink to the floor without being hit. "His eyes were closed. I assumed that he had fainted. He was totally unconscious before he hit the ground. He fell sideways as his knees buckled". He tried to reach Gately to help, but was pushed away with the movement of the crowd. The jury reached a verdict of death by misadventure.

On 28 June 1974 Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, appointed Scarman to conduct a public inquiry into the events in Red Lion Square "to consider whether any lessons may be learned for the better maintenance of public order when demonstrations take place". Jenkins determined that the inquiry would take place after the inquest had concluded.

The events helped make the National Front a household name in the UK. News reports showed the National Front standing waiting for police directions, while violence was taking place between the hard-left elements and the police. Walker, in his study of the organisation, states that "it was the NF which emerged as the innocent victims of political violence, the Left who emerged as the instigators, and it was a 21-year-old student who died." According to Clutterbuck, "the result was precisely what the NF would have wished—publicity for the purpose of their demonstration, discrediting of their detractors, increasing applications for their membership and a substantially increased vote both at the next General Election and at subsequent by-elections". The academic Stan Taylor disputes Clutterbuck's conclusion that the events helped the National Front at the October 1974 general election. As although they raised their vote in some seats, their share of the national vote remain consistent.

For the remainder of the 1970s, Liberation found its ability to lead demonstrations against the National Front was diminished, partly because of Red Lion Square, and partly because their agenda was focused on abolishing imperialism and neo-colonialism. The IMG was heavily criticised in the public domain for the violence in Red Lion Square. The organisation also received condemnation from the CPGB, as, they said, the violence made it difficult for the anti-fascist movement to broaden its appeal. The IMG no longer relied on mass demonstrations to get their message across, and subsequent opposition to National Front marches was led by the Socialist Workers Party.

Despite the blame for Gately's death and the violence of the day being levelled at the hard-left protesters—both in Scarman's report and the media—the number of demonstrators against the National Front and racist policies rose at local levels in the UK through the 1970s. Local demonstrations disrupted election addresses by National Front candidates in the October 1974 election, there was an increase in the amount of literature against them and their policies, and National Front demonstrations through the rest of the 1970s attracted large counter-demonstrations. The increasingly provocative actions by the National Front continued through the 1970s led to what Peter Waddington describes as "a predictably violent response" from the militant left. Violence from both sides in Birmingham, Manchester, the East End of London (all 1977) and in 1979 in Southall, which led to the death of Blair Peach. Following the death of Peach, Bidwell said in Parliament "Blair Peach, together with young Kevin Gately, who died in 1974 in the Red Lion Square events, will be regarded by history as a martyr and a young courageous campaigner against fascism and racism".

The National Front was founded in 1967 as a far-right, fascist political party. From its inception the organisation had four main issues on which they campaigned: opposition to Britain's membership of the European Economic Community; Ulster; the trade unions and what the journalist Martin Walker calls "the post-immigration attack on black people born in Britain". The National Front had grown rapidly in the early 1970s and by 1974 the membership was about 10–12,000.

Liberation, was formed in 1954 as the Movement for Colonial Freedom, an advocacy group focused on influencing British policy in support of anti-colonial movements in the British Empire. The president of the organisation was Lord Brockwell, and two Labour Party MPs acted as officers. From the early-to-mid-1960s the organisation spent much of its energy in ensuring it was not taken over by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), a party also dedicated to promoting anti-colonialism. According to the historian Josiah Brownell, despite the organisation's efforts, the London Area Council was dominated by CPGB members by 1967, including Kay Beauchamp, Tony Gilbert, Dorothy Kuya and Sam Kahn.

Kevin Gately (18 September 1953 – 15 June 1974) was a second-year student of mathematics at the University of Warwick who died as the result of a head injury received in the Red Lion Square disorders in London; it is not known if the injury was caused deliberately or was accidental. He was not a member of any political organisation, and the march at Red Lion Square was his first. He was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Great Britain for at least 55 years.

Kevin Gately was born on 18 September 1953 and was 20 at the time of the disorders at Red Lion Square. Originally from Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, he was a mathematics student at the University of Warwick and had never been part of a political demonstration before joining a group of students from Warwick who travelled to London for the day. Gately was 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) or 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall with red hair; he is identifiable in several photographs from the day, his head and shoulders clearly above those of his fellow demonstrators.