John Clifford CH

Order of the Companions of Honour

The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....

 (16 October 1836 in Sawley, Derbyshire

Sawley, Derbyshire

Sawley is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Erewash, in southeast Derbyshire, England. Around 6,500 people live in the parish. with a slightly higher than average number of people over 65....

 – 20 November 1923 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) was a British Nonconformist minister and politician.

Biography

Clifford was son of a warp-machinist. As a boy, he worked in a lace

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

 factory, where he attracted the notice of the leaders of the Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 community, who sent him to the academy at Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

 and the Baptist college at Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

 to be educated for the ministry. In 1858, he was called to the Praed Street chapel, Paddington

Paddington

Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

 (London), and while officiating there he attended University College and pursued his education by working at the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

.

He matriculated at the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 (1859), and took its Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree (1861), Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 (1862), Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 (1864), and Bachelor of Laws

Bachelor of Laws

The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...

 (1866), and in 1883 he was given the honorary degree of DD by Bates College

Bates College

Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, being known therefrom as Dr. Clifford. This degree, from a small American college, afterwards led to sarcastic allusions, but Dr. Clifford had not courted it. Cliffor's achievements at the University of London provided evidence of his intellectual equipment.

At the Praed Street chapel, he gradually obtained a large following, and in 1877 the Westbourne Park chapel was opened for him. As a preacher, writer, propagandist and ardent Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician, he became a power in the Nonconformist body. He was president of the London Baptist Association in 1879, of the Baptist Union in 1888 and 1899, and of the National Council of Evangelical Churches in 1898.

In 1899, he became a prominent campaigner against

Opposition to the Second Boer War

Opposition to the Second Boer War in Britain was modest when the war began on 11 October 1899 and was always less widespread than support for it, let alone prevailing indifference. However, influential groups formed immediately and ineffectually against the war, including the South African...

 the Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. He was on the South Africa Conciliation Committee

South Africa Conciliation Committee

The South Africa Conciliation Committee was a British anti-war organisation that opposed the Second Boer War.It was formed in 1899 in response to the outbreak of the war, for the "dissemination of accurate information" on the war, and to seek an early "peaceable settlement between this country and...

 executive and he was president of the Stop the War Committee

Stop the War Committee

The Stop the War Committee was an anti-war organisation that opposed the Second Boer War. It was formed by William Thomas Stead in 1899. Its president was John Clifford and prominent members included Lloyd George and Keir Hardie...

. As well as being a critic of the British treatment of the Boer

Boer

Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...

s he was a critic of the Union of South Africa

Union of South Africa

The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

's negotiated terms because of the un-equal treatment of the majority black population in the country.http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REclifford.htm

His chief prominence in politics, however, dates from 1903 onwards in consequence of his advocacy of passive resistance to the Education Act of 1902. He threw himself into this movement with militant ardour, his own goods being distrained upon, with those of numerous other Nonconformists, rather than that any contribution should be made by them in taxation for the purpose of an Education Act, which they believed to be calculated to support denominational religious teaching in the schools.

The passive resistance movement, with Dr. Clifford as its chief leader, had a large share in the defeat of the Unionist government in January 1906, and his efforts were then directed to getting a new act passed which should be undenominational in character. The rejection of Mr. Birrell's bill in 1906 by the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 was accordingly accompanied by denunciations of that body from Dr. Clifford and his followers. However, year by year went by, with nothing but failure on the part of the Liberal ministry to arrive at any solution of the education problem.

Failure was now due not to the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 but the inherent difficulties of the subject, as it became increasingly clear to the public generally that the easy denunciations of the act of 1902, which had played so large a part in the elections of 1906, were not so simple to carry into practice. A compromise, in which the denominationalists would have their say, was the result. Meanwhile, passive resistance lost its interest, though Dr. Clifford and his followers continued to protest against their treatment.

Clifford was appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in the 1921 New Year Honours.