Andrew & Ann Noel Clark

My friend Andrew Clark, who died of leukaemia on 23rd April 2020 aged 77 was, in his own words, “a small boy grafted onto a privileged family tree”.

He was the third of six children adopted by Zettie, nee Halliday, a trained nurse, and Arnold Clark, wealthy glass merchant and pillar of the Baptist church. He grew up in Great Missenden in a strongly religious household. Educated at Leighton Park School, Birmingham University and Manchester University, he became a prominent Quaker and passionate pacifist in adult life.

Andrew’s faith, constantly evolving, was the mainspring of his actions. He was aware of his privileged position, and by his teens he had decided to devote his life to others less fortunate. Adventurous, hungry for foreign travel, heedless of his personal comfort or safety, he was naturally attracted to relief work in a war zone.

His practical intelligence, allied to his great warmth and humanity, made him an outstanding aid worker, setting up relief and rehabilitation services for the Quakers, first in Biafra at the time of the Nigerian civil war and then in newly independent Bangladesh. Back in England for a brief respite, Andrew’s father, worried about his safety, said: “I don’t mind what you do next as long as you don’t go to Vietnam.” A fortnight later the Overseas Director of Oxfam invited him to work with the Buddhists there. He couldn’t resist the challenge.

There was a fitting reward. Working with and learning from the Buddhists was the best job he ever had, he later said. And in Vietnam he met the perfect partner, Ann Noel, who was working as a volunteer nurse. Two years later, in May 1975 they were married in a Quaker ceremony in Amersham. Honeymoon? A small hotel and a diet of goat stew in Kebri Dehar. Oxfam had sent them both to the Ogaden area of Ethiopia during a famine.

The consternation of relatives was compounded a year later when the young couple, plus 10-week old Joel, set off for India to create the Oxfam West Orissa programme with respected development worker A.V.Swamy.

Finding solutions to rural poverty became one of Andrew’s defining skills, deepened by post-graduate study of agricultural engineering at Cranfield, and honed by years in the field. Andrew conducted a review of Oxfam’s work across India, and then worked and lived happily with his family (completed by the new-born Zettie) among the locals in Damoh, Central India.

He returned home, now nearly 40, because he had been asked to become the General Secretary of Quaker Peace and Service. He moved into Chipko at Parslow’s Hillock, a house spectacularly located on the Chiltern escarpment that he designed to be sustainably powered by wood logged from his land. Andrew’s need for physical activity and danger would in future be satisfied by a chainsaw, a quad bike and a wood-burning stove.

For seventeen years Andrew ran Quaker Peace and Service. For another five he led the International Association for Religious Freedom. On retirement he became chairman of Anti-Slavery International, for which he was a tireless fund-raiser. He was one of the great and good in his chosen field. Andrew’s love of Chipko was shared by his children, and the last years of his life were lived in an extended family, who all survive him. He spent his last months surrounded by them, writing his memoirs. It was a fitting end to the life of a truly good man.

Submitted to the Guardian ‘Other Lives’ section, by Bill Robinson.