Philip Clayton

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Rev. Philip "Tubby" Clayton, 1937

The Reverend Philip Thomas Byard Clayton CH (known as "Tubby Clayton") (12 December 1885 – 16 December 1972) was an Anglican clergyman and the founder of Toc H.

He was born in Queensland, Australia of English parents who brought him back to England when he was two years old. He was educated at St Paul's School in London and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a First in Theology.

After ordination as a priest of the Church of England, Clayton served as curate at St Mary's Church, Portsea, from 1910 to 1915. He then became an army chaplain in France where, in 1915, he and another chaplain Rev. Neville Talbot opened Talbot House^[1], a rest house for soldiers at Poperinge, Belgium. It became known as Toc H, this being signal terminology for "T H" or "Talbot House". It closed temporarily in 1918 when the German front had drawn too close.

The spirit of friendship fostered at Toc H across social and denominational boundaries inspired Clayton, the Rev. Dick Sheppard and Alexander Patterson to set out in 1920 what became known as the Four points of the Toc H compass:

1. Friendship ("To love widely")
2. Service ("To build bravely")
3. Fairmindedness ("To think fairly")
4. The Kingdom of God ("To witness humbly")

This followed the foundation of a new Toc H House in Kensington in 1919, followed by others in London, Manchester, and Southampton. The Toc H movement continued to grow in numbers and established, also, a women's league.

From 1922 to 1962, Clayton was Vicar of All Hallows by the Tower and, from that base, he travelled widely in Britain and throughout the British Empire promoting Toc H and encouraging the foundation of new branches.

[edit] References

Philip "Tubby" Clayton and TocH. Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
Clayton, P. T. (1919). Tales of Talbot House - : everyman's club in Poperinghe of Ypres, 1915-1918.
(1960) Durham, John: Talbot House to Tower Hill. An anthology of the writings of the Reverend P. B.-'Tubby'-Clayton.
Prideaux-Brune, K. (1983). A Living Witness - personal memoir of Philip Clayton.
Rice, J. and Prideaux-Brune, K. (1990). Out of A Hop Loft. Seventy-five years of Toc H.