Charles Jordan MBE, founder of Servol, has passed away. I had hoped to say these few words at his Requiem Mass. Instead, I publish them here in gratitude for a man whose life’s work gave vulnerable young people security, dignity and somewhere from which to begin.

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Update

A few weeks ago, Charles Jordan MBE passed away.

Charles was the founder of Servol, the community organisation he established in Birmingham in 1979 and which, through its various incarnations, continues today as Servol Community Services.

Earlier this year, I wrote about Charles, Servol, and the extraordinary commitment he made to serving his community.

At the time, Charles was living with severe Parkinson’s disease. Through my friendship with his daughter, Sonia, I had come to know something of his story, his character, and the importance that Servol continued to hold for him.

Charles spoke fondly and consistently about his years at Servol. The phrase that kept coming back was “serving the community”. That was how he understood what he had done. His “job”, as he saw it, was to give himself, all of himself, to the community.

I wrote then about my concern that, as organisations evolve and generations of management change, the people who created them can gradually disappear from their institutional memory. Maybe that’s a personal reflection on some of the amazing and meaningful charities that have emerged from Birmingham’s inner city.

I had hoped there was still time for Servol to reconnect with Charles and acknowledge the man who had founded it.

Sadly, that time has now passed.

There is, however, something for which I am enormously grateful.

Sonia shared my earlier article with her father before he died. She subsequently told me that he had been deeply moved by it. After his death, she left a beautiful comment on the article saying that her father had described me as having been “sent as a gift” to tell his story.

I find that difficult to put into words. It genuinely chokes me up.

I am simply very glad that Charles knew, before he left us, that people remembered.

Saying Goodbye

Charles’s life will now be celebrated at a Requiem Mass at The Birmingham Oratory on Monday the 24th of August at 11am, followed by a wake and further celebrations of his life in Derby.

A funeral, even for someone who lived a public life and whose work affected thousands of people, is fundamentally a private family affair.

A Catholic Requiem Mass also has its own purpose, form and liturgy. There is necessarily limited opportunity for people to stand and speak at length about the person who has died.

I had nevertheless written something for Charles.

It was never intended to be a complete account of his life. I could not possibly provide that. I didn’t know Charles personally, and those memories properly belong to his family and the people who shared their lives with him.

Instead, I wanted to represent one small group of people who might otherwise go unmentioned.

They were some of the young people of Birmingham and the West Midlands whose paths crossed Servol during the 1980s.

Some were my friends.

Some were acquaintances.

Many of them probably never knew Charles Jordan’s name.

But they benefited from what he had built.

There won’t be an opportunity for me to deliver these words at Charles’s Requiem Mass.

So I am publishing them here instead.

This is what I would have liked to have said.

Eulogy for Charles Jordan MBE

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say a few words in praise of the life and work of Charles Jordan.

I didn’t know Charles personally. I’ve been fortunate, though, to learn more about the man and his life through my friendship with his daughter, Sonia.

The reason I wanted to speak about Charles today is simply to say thank you, and, in some small way, to represent part of Birmingham and the West Midlands’ punk and youth community whose lives were touched by the work he did.

Many people here may not be aware just how many young people Charles helped through Servol.

During the 1980s, a great many of the friends and acquaintances I knew found themselves in housing that existed because of Charles and the work he had done. These were young people who didn’t necessarily have an easy start in life, and who needed somewhere safe and secure from which they could begin to build one.

Charles helped give them that.

At the time, we probably didn’t know his name. We certainly didn’t understand all the work that had gone on behind the scenes to make those homes possible. But looking back now, I can see the effect of what he did in the lives of people I knew.

There are many ways to leave a mark on the world. Helping a young person have a safe place to live, a little security, and somewhere from which to make a start is surely one of the most meaningful.

So, on behalf of some of those young people of Birmingham and the West Midlands, many of whom never had the opportunity to thank him themselves, I would simply like to say:

Thank you, Charles.

FIN

For more about Charles Jordan’s life, the founding of Servol in 1979, his MBE for services to community relations in the West Midlands, and the organisation that grew from his life’s work, see my earlier article, “Serving the Community: The Story of Servol, Charles Jordan MBE and What Was, What Is, and What Could Be” published on Horkan.com on 16th January 2026.