Clayton , Philip Thomas Byard , 1885-1972 , clergyman

Reverend Philip Thomas Byard Clayton, CH, MC, DD, MA, FSA, nicknamed "Tubby" from an early age , was born in Australia in 1885, the youngest of five children of Reginald Byard Buchanan Clayton and Isabel Clayton (nee Sheppard). The family moved to England the following year where Reginald set up an Australian trading company in the City. Tubby attended St Paul's School from where he won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1904. He gained a first class degree in Theology and furthered his theological training under Dr Armitage Robinson, Dean of Westminster. Following his ordination as priest in 1911, he spent four years as a curate in the parish of St Mary, Portsea, but at the outset of World War One became an army chaplain and joined the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in Spring 1915.

In France, his haven for front-line troops, Talbot House in Poperinghe, Belgium, with its Upper Room set aside for worship, formed the basis of the Toc H movement which became his life-long work, combined with his incumbency of All Hallows Barking by the Tower (1922-63). "Toc H" was morse code for the initials of Talbot House, founded with Neville Talbot, another army chaplain and son of the Bishop of Winchester, in memory of Talbot's younger brother, Gilbert. The aim of Toc H was to provide physical support and comfort based on a firm religious foundation. For many years its headquarters were at All Hallows, with a branch network spread round the world.

Tubby Clayton was an enthusiast and an articulate campaigner for many causes-rebuilding the church of All Hallows after World War Two; the ordination of ex-servicemen at the Knutsford Ordination Test School; the improvement of the Tower Hill area and the creation of open spaces for the local population; leprosy; the provision of social support to the East End poor; the study of the encaustic floor tiles at Westminster Abbey (for which he was awarded the Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries); and early stone carvings in the Brito-Celtic church. He was a Chaplain to the Merchant Navy (spending much time with the British tanker fleet), Chaplain to Kings George V and VI and Extra Chaplain to Elizabeth II. With help, he combined all these activities with his parish duties, and endless publicity and fund-raising for Toc H.

The Clayton Family were close and corresponded prolifically; for Clayton this covered not only his immediate family, but cousins and relatives in Australia. In later years he pursued research into the history of his family, particularly the Claytons and the Byards.