Clipson, Arthur Edward Doughty (1902-1964)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ARTHUR EDWARD DOUGHTY CLIPSON: born Barton on Humber 1902. After training at Hartley College he entered the Primitive Methodist ministry in 1927. He served the four years of his probation at Kidderminster. His other Circuits were: Pickering, Shipley, and Bolton from which he went to the Central Hall at Bradford where his many gifts found full expression. He was called from there to the Superintendency of the Whitechapel Mission, where he laboured with outstanding success for the next seventeen years. 

The specialised work begun by Thomas Jackson among delinquent lads appealed to his genius. He was instrumental in the removal of the Farm Colony from Thorington to Colchester. Also he began the work in the Hostel at Tulse Hill where lads in need are found a home until they can be established. The work at Whitechapel itself prospered under his leadership and at the time of his death he was deeply committed to a revolutionary scheme of redevelopment. 

For fifteen years he served as Free Church Chaplain at the London Hospital. Outside the work of the Mission he served as a member of the Home Mission Prison Committee and on the General Purposes, Finance and Chaplaincy Committees of the Free Church Federal Council. His utter devotion to his work, his deep sincerity and forthrightness coupled with a deep love for people, especially those in need, endeared him to all who knew him. His gifts as a preacher were of great value to the Mission and he has left his impress upon all its work. He had the confidence of all who served with him. 

Although twice laid low by a coronary thrombosis he refused to consider himself. He died suddenly on 2 September 1964 soon after the close of his Circuit quarterly meeting, in the sixty-second year of his age and the thirty-seventh of his ministry.

Family

Arthur was born on 9 June 1902 at Barton on Humber, Lincolnshire, to parents Benjamin, a dairyman (1911), and Mary Ellen.

He married Nellie Doreen Jackson (1902-1980) in the spring of 1931 Barton on Humber, Lincolnshire. Birth records identify four children.

• Barry B (b1933)
• Michael C (b1935)
• Gerda D (b1940)
• Christopher C (b1943)

Arthur died on 2 September 1964 in the Stepney Registration District, London.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1927 Kidderminster
• 1931 Pickering
• 1934 Bradford Shipley
• 1940 Bolton Wesley
• 1943 Bradford C Hall
• 1947 London Mission Whitechapel

References

Methodist Minutes 1965/179

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers