Trevor Phillips OBE has shed light on the illustrious past of the straight-taking 91-year-old London grandfather who became a “national treasure” overnight after receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
Martin Kenyon, who was among the first people in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, delighted audiences across the world after saying he was late for his appointment because he “couldn’t damn well find anywhere to park my car”.
But almost a week after Mr Kenyon’s historic inoculation, Mr Phillips – a leading anti-racism campaigner and journalist – revealed there was much more to the elderly Londoner than just his hilarious no-nonsense approach to online stardom.
“Nobody should be fooled by his air of old-fashioned bewilderment,” Mr Phillips wrote in a comment piece for The Times on Monday.
“Behind the look of baby-blue innocence that he can deploy at will lies a razor-sharp mind and a copious grasp of geopolitics.
“So far he has managed to avoid mentioning his friendship with the circle around Nelson Mandela, or the fact that he is one of the few Brits alive who can say that he knew Martin Luther King personally.
“As his friend for almost half a century, I know his story to be a window into a time about which much is said these days, but about which far too little is actually understood.”
Mr Kenyon touched on his commitment to promoting racial equality during an appearance on Good Morning Britain last week.
Piers Morgan asked the 91-year-old about his friendship with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom Mr Kenyon described as a “totally unknown student” at the time.
He explained that he had been asked to “look out” for Archbishop Tutu during a period in which he helped set up a committee to end Apartheid in South Africa – a cause to which he was “passionately” dedicated.
Mr Phillips revealed in his article: “In fact, Tutu was just one of hundreds of students from developing nations that Martin supported during the decades when we were required to pay exorbitant fees for the privilege of facing overt prejudice on British streets.
“He would magic up accommodation and financial support from nowhere for young men and women down on their luck and whose funds from home had arrived late or not at all.
“Graduates all over Asia, Africa and the Caribbean owe their academic careers to his quiet influence.”
Mr Phillips explained that, during those “more paranoid Cold War days”, there had been some suspicions as to why “this dapper Old Etonian should take a benign interest in overseas students”.
“Inevitably, rumours spread that he must be a spy,” he said, but said the truth was probably far more prosaic: "Martin’s job was to make sure that the students who came here went home with at least respect, if not affection, for the British way of life.”
He continued: “And now, whether the cunning old fox engaged CNN’s camera crew deliberately or accidentally doesn’t matter."
Mr Phillips said that by taking and promoting the jab, his friend “will have saved lives already”.
He added: "In this month of fables and metaphors, Martin Kenyon’s intervention carries a profound seasonal message.
“Whether you are lighting Chanukkah candles, opening Advent calendars, or breaking out the kente cloth for the seven days of Kwanzaa, at the forefront of most minds will be the desire to bring all generations together in some way for the holiday.”
