Peter Freitag – councillor, character and community champion – was laid to rest in the town he knew affectionately as “dozy Darlington”, and which for more than 50 years he loved and served.
The graveside service was in the Jewish section of the West Cemetery today (Thursday, March 30), the cortege diverting along Duke Street to pass the office where for 30 years he ran an estate agency.
Clearly a chip off the old bloke, his son Matthew told mourners that if he’d known so many were coming he’d have charged an admission fee.
Many also knew him for his name-dropping and bottomless well of jokes – “some of them mucky” said Bess Robertson, chairman of the Darlington synagogue, who led a service which included parts in Hebrew.
Born in Czechoslovakia of German parents in 1929, Peter faced adversity as a child.
“It built his character and it built his humility in life” said Matthew.
In England he played juniors tennis at Wimbledon, rugby for Harlequins and reached the semi-final of the national youth boxing championships.
In Darlington he became a leading figure in the Liberal Democrats, chaired the town’s Hebrew congregation and the branch of MIND, the mental health charity, served three terms as a councillor and stood in Westminster and European elections.
Read more: Tribute to Darlington politician, estate agent and expert name-dropper Peter Freitag
“He had enormous energy, even when he was getting on a bit” recalled former council and Lid Dem colleague Ian Barnes.
“Not everyone liked Peter’s style, but he certainly enlivened things. He stirred things up a little bit.”
One of his enduring campaigns was to relocate the cattle market from its ever-contentious site near the railway station.
“Peter would tell fellow councillors that they cared more about cattle than their constituents” Mr Barnes recalled.
Councillor Gerald Lee, with whom Mr Freitag had worked on the Celebrating Communities group, talked of a great supporter.
“Even if you put religion and politics to one side, there was still so much to share with Peter and we shared so much together. He had a real dedication to so many things, including his faith,” he said.
Tribute was also paid by anti-racism campaigner Shaun Campbell, founder of the Arthur Wharton Foundation in Darlington, who said: “Peter was one of those people who, if he said it was going to be all right, you knew that it would be.”
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Matthew Freitag, a Hawaii-based airline pilot, also recalled the time when he and his father – 70 at the time – had been skiing in the French Alps and Peter had to be airlifted to hospital with broken ribs after crashing.
“He’d only fallen off a mountain trying to keep up with me,” he said
Mr Freitag was 93. He leaves his wife Valerie, eight years his junior, son Matthew and daughters Julie and Wendy.
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