Gurmeet Singh Mattu, 1955-2026

Gurmeet's funeral will take place at 11.15am on Wednesday 4th February 2026, at Glasgow (Maryhill) Crematorium, Tresta Rd, G23, and thereafter at Central Gurdwara Singh Sahba, Berkeley Street, G3.

Donations in Gurmeet's memory can be made, if so desired, to the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity.

Obituary

Gurmeet at the Glasgow Mela, 1990

Gurmeet Singh Mattu was born on October 21st 1955, at Lennox Castle Maternity Hospital in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, to parents Tej and Sohan. The family lived mainly in Glasgow, but also spent some years of Gurmeet's childhood in Cromarty, in the north of Scotland. In the 1970s, Gurmeet settled in the Yorkhill area, where he remained for the rest of his life.  

He held a variety of jobs across his lifetime, but from an early age primarily saw himself as a writer. Following rejection of his first novel, a work of science fiction called These Lunatic Gods, he turned his hand to radio comedy, responding to a call from Glasgow’s Radio Clyde for new writers, and found his work well-received. 

In his own words, as a Scottish Indian writer he was perceived in those days as ‘an oddity’, but this led to an approach by an Asian Arts group, asking him to write a stage play for them, despite his never having written for the stage. The result of that approach was his first full-length stage play, Citizen Singh, co-written with Ian Hopkins. The play was performed at the Glasgow Arts Centre in 1984, and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A review in The Scotsman newspaper described Citizen Singh as “Billy Connolly spiced with curry”. Gurmeet began to adjust to a new identity as a dramatist rather than a novelist.

He wrote further stage plays, notably including Every Bloody Sunday (1985), also with Ian Hopkins; A MsSiah and Cowboys and Indians (both 1987). Cowboys and Indians was performed by TAG Theatre at the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow, and a review in the Glasgow Herald newspaper read: 

Mattu’s serious, sincere message would seem to be that the most important element in deciding who you are is to declare yourself a human being among other human beings.

In 1989, he contributed a piece entitled The Stormer as part of ‘Long Story Short’ - a touring stage production by the 7:84 Theatre Company. The Sunday Times newspaper described this as ‘an off-beat romantic comedy, full of incident, colour and suspense’, and he later expanded the story into a full-length novel. A further contribution to 7:84’s touring offer, 1992’s ‘Scotland Matters’, was The Giftie Gi’en Us, which drew on Gurmeet’s long-standing support for Scottish independence. 

He also continued to write for radio, having been invited to do so by Hamish Wilson at the BBC, with Sick as a Parrot (1990), and further works for BBC Radio including ‘These Magic Words’ (1994) and ‘Shoulders’ (1998). He also wrote for screen, having two sitcom pilots commissioned by the BBC (Coconuts and Doc), and winning the Scottish Screen/DNA Films First Draft Award for his first full-length film script, Disciple.

Apart from writing, he was known for a range of community-focused work, having been the Project Co-ordinator for the first three instances of the Glasgow Mela, which began at the Tramway in 1990 as part of Glasgow’s City of Culture celebrations. He was also inspired by his heritage to produce Common Cause, a documentary on the contribution of the Indian army to the allied cause during World War II, and an exhibition entitled ‘Sikhs in Glasgow’. As a long-term Yorkhill resident, he led campaigns for improved facilities in the area, and also ran the Yorkhill Theatre Group.

Having trained in the 1980s as a journalist, Gurmeet later qualified as a coach, and latterly created a range of resources to support aspiring and new writers, drawing on his own experiences to advise against pigeonholing oneself into a particular style or genre. In 2019, he reflected:

I’m not rich and I’m not famous, but I am a writer and that’s all I ever set out to be. Not the kind of writer I expected to be, a novelist, but a dramatist. If I’d known this when I started, I could have saved a lot of time.

In his later years, Gurmeet self-published a number of novels, scripts and short stories, confirming that his own urge to write in a range of styles and genres never left him. 

He passed away peacefully at home in Yorkhill in January 2026, aged 70, and leaves a legacy of important and insightful writing for future generations to learn from and enjoy. 

Dr Leanne McIver, 16th January 2026

Content from this piece was used with permission by Ann Fotheringham, Senior Features Writer, Herald & Times Group, in a tribute published in the Glasgow Times on Friday 30th January, and online here.

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Note: I was estranged from my dad for most of the last decade of his life. Nevertheless, following his recent passing, I feel it's important to acknowledge and commemorate his life and contribution.