In the run-up to the 1979 general election, the National Front announced that it would hold a meeting at

Southall Town Hall on 23 April 1979, St George's Day. Southall was to be one of 300 parliamentary seats
for which the organisation put up candidates.[35] Prior to the Southall meeting, similar events had
resulted in clashes with anti-racist protesters, including in Islington, North London, on 22 April, and in
Leicester the following day. At both events, police had been injured trying to keep the two sides
separate.[36][37]

A petition of 10,000 residents was raised to cancel the meeting, but to no effect.[1] Ealing Council had
blocked previous meetings by the National Front, but, under the Representation of the People Act 1969,
they allowed the party to use the hall.[38] The day before the meeting a march by the IWA was planned
from central Southall, past the town hall, and ending at Ealing Town Hall. Approximately 1,200 police
officers were on duty along the five-mile (eight-kilometre) route; 19 people were arrested.[39] Two
counter-demonstrations for the day of the meeting were planned: a picket on the pavement opposite
the hall, and a seated demonstration outside it.[40] To deal with the potential violence, 2,876 police
officers were drafted in, 94 of whom were on horseback; they arrived at 11:30 am and demonstrators
began gathering at 1:00 pm in preparation for the 7:30 pm National Front meeting.[41]

Map of Southall. Peach's direction of travel away from the town hall and down a side street is shown, to
the point where he was killed

Southall, showing the position of the town hall and where Peach was killed; the green arrows show
Peach's direction of travel while trying to leave the area

The number of demonstrators at the town hall rose, and included some whom the police considered
militant elements. There were some clashes between police and protesters and a small number of
arrests ensued. The police decided to establish a sterile cordon around the town hall, although they still
allowed a small, contained demonstration in the High Street. Cordons were set up on Lady Margaret
Road, the Broadway, High Street and South Road. Between 2:30 and 3:15 pm, at the High Street cordon,
missiles were thrown at the police, who used riot shields to contain the crowd.[39]

According to the official police report, between 5:30 and 6:30 pm the level of violence rose as the crowd
at the High Street cordon again began to throw missiles and at about 6:20 pm between 500 and 2,000
protesters tried to breach the police lines. In response, mounted officers were brought in to disperse the
crowd.[42][43] The author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who was present at the demonstration, thought the
mood changed when the police tactics changed from containment to dispersement, which triggered the
missile-throwing reaction from the crowd.[44]

A house on Park View Road, the headquarters of Peoples Unite, was used as a first aid post.[45] The
official police report states that the residents were "a group of mainly Rastafarians" who were squatting
at the premises, and that these occupants threw missiles from the house at police in the street.[42][e]
SPG officers entered the house and an altercation broke out in which two officers were stabbed. Those in
the house—including those manning the first aid post and those receiving treatment—were beaten with
truncheons, and an estimated £10,000 of damage was done to the contents of the house, including the
equipment for the band Misty in Roots; the group's manager, Clarence Baker, went into a coma for five
months after his skull was fractured by a police truncheon.[45][47][48] All those inside were removed
from the property, regardless of what they were doing, and there were subsequent complaints by the
inhabitants of racist and sexist abuse by the police. Seventy people were arrested either at or near the
address.[43][47] At the trial of one of those arrested, one of the SPG officers involved reported "there
was no overall direction of the police forces at this time" and the situation was "a free for all".[49]

National Front members began arriving from 7:00 pm.[43] At its scheduled time their meeting took
place. During the assembly, one of the organisation's speakers called for "the bulldozing of Southall and
its replacement by a 'peaceful English hamlet'".[50] Four members of the public were allowed into the
hall to fulfil the requirements of the Representation of the People Act, but a journalist from the Daily
Mirror was stopped from entering because the newspaper was considered to be "nigger loving".[50][51]
When the meeting ended at about 10:00 pm, some of the attendees gave Nazi salutes on the steps of
the town hall before being escorted to safety by the police.[51][52]

A confused scene as police pull away a protester, with other demonstrators close by

Police making arrests as the rioting was in progress

Once the meeting was underway, the police decided to clear the area of demonstrators and allowed
them to pass along the Broadway towards the crossroads with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft
Avenue.[53] At about 7:30 pm Peach, with four friends, decided to return to their cars and moved
towards the junction.[54] The group had been on the Broadway since they arrived in the area at 4:45
pm.[55] At around the same time a flare or petrol bomb was thrown either at or over a police coach on
the Broadway. The driver—with a policeman standing next to him—drove the coach through the crowd;
no-one was injured, but eyewitnesses said that the mood of the crowd changed at that point. Two SPG
vans drove westwards along the Broadway and collected two crates of bricks and bottles that the crowd
left behind as they retreated. Items were thrown at the two vehicles and a police inspector on a building
roof radioed to the central control unit that there was a riot in progress.[56]

Peach and his friends turned off the Broadway down Beachcroft Avenue, thinking they were heading out
of the area, but not realising the road only connected to Orchard Avenue, which led back to South Road
and the heavy police cordon there.[54] There was a group of 100 to 150 protesters on the corner of the
Broadway and Beachcroft Avenue and the SPG vans of Unit 3 drove to the junction of the Broadway with
Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue to face them. As the officers deployed out of the vehicles they
were hit by missiles from the crowd. One officer was hit in the face by a brick which fractured his jaw in
three places. The inspector leading the unit radioed "Immediate assistance required".[57][58]
The official investigation into Peach's death states that the events leading up to this point, while difficult,
were relatively straightforward, but that "further description of what happened" is hampered by
"conflicting accounts [that] have been given by private persons and also by police".[59] The radio call
from Unit 3 was picked up by SPG Unit 1, two of whose vans drove into Beachcroft Avenue from the
Broadway entrance and stopped at the corner with Orchard Avenue. They deployed while under
bombardment from bricks and stones.[60] The first person to exit the van was Inspector Alan Murray,
who had charge of the first van of Unit 1 (called Unit 1-1), and was followed by constables Bint, White,
Freestone, Richardson and Scottow. Murray and his men were using riot shields, had their truncheons
drawn and worked to disperse the crowd.[43][54][61] During this action Peach received a blow on the
head. Fourteen witnesses stated that they saw it happen and said that it was a police officer who struck
the blow.[62] One resident told the inquest that she:

saw blue vans coming down Beachcroft Avenue. They were coming very fast—as they came round
Beachcroft Avenue, they stopped. I saw policemen with shields come out—people started running and
the police tried to disperse them. I saw police hitting. I saw a white man standing there ... The police
were hitting everybody. People started running, some in the alley, some in my house ... I saw Peach, I
then saw the policeman with the shield attack Peach.[54]

Peach was taken into a nearby house—71 Orchard Avenue—after one of the residents saw him being hit.
He was given a glass of water, but could not hold it. His eyes were rolled up to the top of his head and he
had difficulty speaking. The residents soon called an ambulance, which was logged at 8:12 pm; it arrived
within ten minutes, and Peach was taken to Ealing Hospital. He was promptly operated on because of a
large extradural haematoma but his condition worsened through the procedure. He died at 12:10 am on
24 April.[63][64]

There were 3,000 protesters in Southall on 23 April. The police arrested 345 people. 97 police were
injured, as were 39 of the prisoners. 25 members of the public were also injured, of whom Peach was
one.[65] A member of the National Front was found near Southall train station, badly beaten. He spent
two days in intensive care before being