Social service in London

"Your endeavors have been the means of bringing essential aid and comfort to those in need. I am quite sure that, could those assisted know directly of your outstanding contributions to this work, they would wish to be associated with this expression of our deepest gratitude for all you have done,” wrote Major Antony Morgan, secretary to The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal in a personal letter accompanying the official Certificate of Appreciation in 1990. It was but the first of similar subsequent acknowledgements that Ervad Eruch Rustomji Daruwalla has received.

In his dedicated service to The Royal British Legion Daruwalla, better known in the cosmopolitan world as Eric, has been selling poppies to raise funds for the benefit of ex-Service people, widows and families for 33 years and has participated in the Remembrance Day Service where he says he has represented the Parsi Zoroastrian community in the march past.

Among those who have congratulated Daruwalla on his passionate volunteerism have been former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the late Queen Mother and, closer to home, London Transport (LT) chairman Peter Ford who noted in a letter, "Thank you very much for being part of London Transport’s contingent in the VJ Parade…It was a great spectacle and we were very pleased that the contribution of London Transport’s employees in the (Second World) War effort was recognized in this way.” The missive from the LT chairman got "Eric the Lion heart” mention in the Archer News.

Daruwalla: "Eric the Lionheart”

Son of the late Ervad Rustomji Daruwalla who had devotedly tended the Sir Cowasji Dinshaw Adenwalla agiary fire, Eruch had undergone the navar and maratab ceremonies in the name of the late Aimai Dorabji Adenwalla, he notes in a letter to Parsiana, and has been one of the mobeds serving the London Zarathushtis. When the Setayesh Gah was shifted from its old residence in Compaygne Gardens to the present one in the new Zoroastrian Centre at Harrow, he had been one of the mobeds who officiated at the first ever performance of the vendidad ceremony in London.

In 1994 the Lions Clubs International Foundation had conferred on Daruwalla the Melvin Jones Fellowship in recognition of his commitment to the ideals of Lionism. The Foundation’s highest honor is named after the man, an industrious insurance salesman, who developed the concept of a community service organization in Chicago in 1917. The award was created in 1973 to commemorate those who involve themselves in humanitarian work beyond their local communities as notes a press release accompanying the letter of congratulations dated September 6, 1994 signed by Rohit Mehta, chairman of the Foundation’s board of trustees.