Reverend John Wilfred Clift

(1904-1993)

The Reverend John Wilfred Clift (Founder of the Fremantle Mission to Seafarers)

John Clift arrived in Fremantle in August 1930 on the Larg’s Bay. Arriving with only 30 shillings in capital, his aim was to set up the Port of Fremantle Mission to Seamen Institute and he began the new project by forming a committee and taking on a debt of £2000 to finance the purchase of premises.

By 1944, when he left to become Chaplain of the Port of London, the Fremantle Mission to Seamen consisted of a chapel plus two well-established, debt-free, mission institutions valued at £14,000 (Reference)

John was born in Grimsby on the 10 February 1904. His father John Henry worked as a laundryman in the local Laceby Sanatorium. His mother was Jessica and he had two brothers Stanley and Leslie.

During his first few months in Fremantle John lived in a bedsit in Queen Victoria Street. This was also used as a makeshift mission. At this time he also acted as curate (assistant priest) to Canon Collick, the Rector of St John’s Anglican Church in East Fremantle (where the Richmond Quarter building now stands, on the corner of Canning Highway and Council Place)

In early 1931 Reverend Clift’s Mission borrowed £2000 to purchase the Union Bank building (see photo) on the corner of High and Cliff Streets. Within a few months this magnificent building was refurbished to function as a Mission to Seamen institute. A main hall, billiards room and reading room were constructed. Billiards competitions between ships’ crews became very popular. (Reference)

In October of 1931 John married Catherine Ruth Bellchamber. Ruth, as she was known, arrived in Fremantle by ship on 5 October 1931 from Surrey in the UK, and was married to John on 7 October in St John’s Anglican Church, East Fremantle. (Reference) A concert and dance, attended by most of the ships’ crews in harbour, was later held at the new institute to celebrate John and Ruth’s marriage. (Reference) The Reverend and Mrs Clift lived at 2 Clayton Street, East Fremantle, from 1933 to 1935 and at 1 Surbiton Road, East Fremantle from 1937 to 1941

Christmas of 1931 was especially busy for the Reverend John as he was flown to Rottnest Island to conduct Holy Communion at 7am; then flown back again to take a service at St John’s at 11am. (Reference)

By 1934 John was able to devote his full attention to the Mission. His next project was the construction of a chapel specifically for seafarers. This was a challenging prospect at the time as the Mission had only paid off £350 of the £2000 owed for the new Seafarers’ Mission. Nevertheless, John forged ahead, asking for donations and raising money through jumble sales, and social events. The new Mariners’ Chapel, with room for 88 worshipers, was completed in 1938, at a cost of £1500. (Reference) 

Meanwhile the mission went on with its normal business of providing help to lonely, stranded, sick, and even lovesick, sailors. (Reference) During 1939 the new chapel conducted services for 1,135 people. The mission was visited by 8,804 sailors and conducted 297 sports fixtures. John visited 636 ships, made 156 visits to hospitals and helped to conduct 148 entertainment sessions during the year. Among many individual stories, Reverend John even helped to resuscitate and revive an Albatross. (Reference) 

1939 A German sailor (engineer) who had been put ashore in Melbourne arrived by train in Fremantle about two days before the outbreak of WW ll. His ship did not dock in Fremantle but headed for Java, owing to the outbreak of war. The German sailor was accommodated at the Fremantle Mission for Seamen for several weeks, having to report daily to police, and Rev Clift found him a job on a farm in the Wheatbelt. The German was extremely grateful for Rev John’s care and help. (Reference)

By 1942 some of the Mission’s activities included distributing 43,680 lb of apples, 1920 magazines, 770 books, 464 woollen garments, 20 cases of grapes, a record player and 260 records and 6 dartboards.(Reference)

At Christmas the following year 3,120 Christmas presents were distributed to various ships.

1942 Rev Clift helps Sikh policemen and their families, evacuated from Christmas Island in March 1942. Winter clothing donated. (Reference) In 1943 Reverend John began plans for the establishment of an ‘Eastern Seamen’s Club’ apparently to serve Indian and Asian sailors. The new superintendent was to be a Mr Patterson, who had lived for 28 years in India. An ‘Eastern garden’ was planned for the new institute and permission granted by the Commonwealth to staff the club with ‘Indian labour’. (Reference) 

A building was purchased in Queen Victoria Street and provided help to over a thousand sailors during the following year. This later developed into the modern Flying Angel Club which exists for all seafarers today. In 1966 the Seafarers’ Mission abandoned the premises in Cliff Street, deconsecrated the chapel, and moved the whole operation to new purpose-built premises in Queen Victoria Street.

1944 - REV CLIFT GOES TO LONDON - Rev. J.W. Clift who came to Western Australia in 1930 to establish the Mission to Seamen in Fremantle reported to the Committee of Management today that he has accepted an appointment as Senior Chaplain to the Port of London. (Reference)

Reverend John accepted a new position as Chaplain for the Port of London in 1944, and he and Ruth moved back there, while the final desperate bombing of London by Hitler’s V1 and V2 rockets was under way. In a letter to his sister in East Fremantle in early 1945 John makes clear just how different London was from Fremantle, at that time. He narrowly escaped injury from German bombs himself, and tells of several children killed on their way to a party at his institute. Two of his staff lost their homes in bombing raids, and a vicar in his parish could not sleep in his own damaged house.

‘The Flying Angel really hovers over this place’, he wrote, ‘for all around us is devastation, and we still stand with only a few scars and wounds.’ (Reference)

John died in 1993 at the age of 89 in Norfolk

Researcher Mark Jardine for www.streetsofeastfreo