Brother Gerard Clifton was born in Manchester on 31st July, 1920. In 1926 his family emigrated to Sydney, Australia where Br Gerry as he was always known received his primary education. The family returned to Carlow in the Irish Republic in 1930 and Br Gerry attended the Christian Brothers School there until the summer of 1936 when he travelled to the Salesian Missionary College, Shrigley Partk, England to complete his secondary education as a lay aspirant and to learn the trade of boot maker. He began his year of novitiate at Beckford in August 1939 and made his first profession on 31st August 1940. After his profession Br Gerry returned to Shrigley where he ran the cobbler's shop until he moved to Blaisdon in 1943. He was to spend the next 16 years at Blaisdon repairing shoes and assisting the boys there.

In 1959 Br Gerry moved to Bolton. The Salesian community there was to be his home for the rest of his active life. He continued performing simple services in an extraordinary way. As well as repairing shoes, he also turned his hand to hairdressing, driving and general assistance to the bursar of the house. He was a faithful, generous, gentle, sympathetic and deeply pious Salesian who never lost his wry sense of humour and his native ability to persuade others to give him the information he sought while revealing as little as possible about his own plans!

In his final years Br gerry suffered increasingly from the effexts of Parkinson's disease and he spent his last months in the nursing home of the Alexian brothers in Moston, Manchester. In the final days of his illness when speech became increasingly difficult, Br Gerry would still try to respond to an offer to say a decade of the rosary. He had a great devotion to Our Lady; the picture of Mary Help of Christians was on the wall above his bed in the room in which he spent the last weeks of his life.

Br Gerry died very peacefully on 11th March 2004.

May he rest in peace!

Father Philip Alfred Spratt died peacefully late in the evening of Friday 27th February, having been anointed by his Salesian Community earlier in the day, at Green Gables Nursing Home, Grayshott, Hants. He had entered nursing care on 10th February, after being admitted to Frimley Park Hospital in January, when he had needed medical treatment. He had several times indicated in the last month of his life that he was ready to meet the Lord. In October 2003, Philip had enjoyed the celebration of his 84th birthday with his Community in St.John Bosco House, Farnborough.

Philip Alfred Spratt was born on the 17th October 1919 in Southampton, one of three children. His father had originally worked as a coal merchant, but later became a dedicated and much appreciated caretaker for the Sisters of La Sainte Union, in Southampton. When Philip, as Salesian Missionary priest returned on leave from India, he celebrated mass in the sisters' chapel, continuing a friendly relationship with the Sisters of La Sainte Union, which lasted until his death.

Philip was baptised in St.Boniface RC Church, Southampton. When the time came to consider secondary schooling, he would later reminisce, he was encouraged to look at the school run by the Salesians in Farnborough. " It became clear I was serious about the priestly vocation, and the missions, so I was sent off to Shrigley - I never became a Farnborough boy after all!" Philip was educated at the Salesian Missionary College Shrigley, in Cheshire, until the age of 18. Then he entered the Novitiate in Beckford, Glos, in August 1938. He signed the "Golden Book" to commit himself to the cause of the missions, made his First Profession on the last day of August 1939, and in a world sliding into war, went on the long journey to India, where he undertook all his subsequent studies.

The Madras Province was where Philip studied both his Philosophy and Theology in Tirapatur, between 1940 and 1949. The years 1943-46, were his practical training as a teacher in Bombay. On April 2nd 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood, in Madras, returning to Bombay for seven fruitful years in Salesian parish work. Fr. Spratt worked in Wadala, where the Salesians had begun their role in parish and school in the year before his ordination. In 1956, Philip was appointed a bursar in Poonamallee, where he also taught in the diocesan seminary. His health was not good in the late 50's, and in 1960 he had to return to the UK. For the next three years, Philip continued to be part of a seminary environment, working as assis­tant bursar, and in Salesian Publications, at Melchet Court, the international house for Salesian students established near Romsey, in Hampshire. He continued in similar work from 1963, until 1968, at Blaisdon. Then came the move to Chertsey.

In Chertsey, Fr. Philip returned to the parish work that had been his strength in India. He was to work on the Salesian parish team at St. Anne's for 27 years, and for most of that time he was heavily committed as a Hospital Chaplain. His kindness and dedication won the hearts and deepened the faith of the families in the parish, patients in hospital, and their relatives. He encouraged many converts, and won many friends. That spirit of encouragement was remembered in the gentle reply he gave, on being approached in the street by a person who felt long separated from church worship:
" But you are still a child of God."

The hospital and the parish in Chertsey became Fr. Philip's second mission. With the aid of motor bike or pedal cycle "Phil" cut a distinctive bespectacled figure who was ready to give time and energy at all sorts of times, and in any sort of crisis. His unstinting work was deeply appreciated and respected. St.Peter's Hospital made presentations to him on more than one occasion. He moved to Farnborough very simply in 1995 and was much missed at St.Anne's.

A priest knows from his ordination that he takes up his cross to follow Christ and to serve Him. The last decade in Chertsey saw Philip Spratt carrying his cross with perseverance: the victim of a road accident, knocked off his cycle and incurring head and leg injuries. A specialist's examination following the accident warned of the forthcoming short-term memory loss. Father Philip was a methodical man in facing the challenge to his pastoral work: the notebooks he kept for his parish visiting showed that. Yet it was a hard time for him. When his heart began to weaken in his mid-seventies, he needed to retire.

Philip Spratt's life made him an "ambassador for Christ." This passage from St. Paul was read at his requiem in Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Farnborough, before his body's interment at Ship Lane. Fr. Philip's Christian compassion and sense of purpose took him as ambassador from Wadala, Mumbai, to Chertsey, Surrey. He kept a reflection in his room, called The Missionary, a short story for children, sent to him in 1997. The closing paragraphs run as follows, and touch on Don Bosco's own boyhood dream.

In my heart, Jesus spoke to me: " Come, follow me. Give me your hand. Walk with Mary, my mother, and fill your heart with my compassion and loving-kindness. Through my wounds your hurts will be healed." His wounded hand stole into mine. Joy came to me, and peace in the immense silence of his understanding.