Clifford Pond grew up in Welwyn Garden City, his father was an itinerant preacher and Clifford came to faith at quite an early age and had a strong impression that one day he too would be a minister of the gospel.
He left school at 14 and worked as a messenger boy for the GPO. At the start of the Second World War he joined St John Ambulance Brigade and then transferred to the RAF Medical Service.
During his time overseas he became aware of the work of the Strict Baptist Mission (SBM) in South India and this connection led him after the war to study at the Strict Baptist Institute in London. On a preaching appointment in London he met Muriel, his wife to be, whose sister became engaged to his close friend at the Institute, John Appleby. Clifford and Muriel were married in 1948 and soon took up their first pastorate in Cransford, Suffolk, where their two daughters, Beryl and Eunice, were born.
‘Every member ministry’
Life in such a rural backwater was rather straightened but it was a formative period spiritually, in which Clifford developed his views on expository preaching, plural elder-ship and ‘every member ministry’ in the local church, views which were somewhat ahead of their time in those days. After six years they moved to a somewhat larger church in Beccles, and then to Chertsey Street in Guildford, which widened his sphere of influence considerably.
Clifford was always aware of the missionary dimension of the gospel and was appointed president of SBM. Then, after 13 years in Surrey, he joined the radio team of Grace Baptist Mission, based in Abingdon. This was a season of very creative activity in which Clifford was something of a pioneer. He later returned to Guildford to support the growing leadership and retired finally to Suffolk where sadly his wife Muriel died. However, in his goodness the Lord provided another companion, Georgie, a woman he had known from days in Guildford, with whom he shared a further 13 happy years. In due time, he moved to the Pilgrim Home at Great Finborough and then spent his final months at the Bethesda Home in Ipswich.
From his modest beginnings Clifford became a prolific writer and has a number of published books in print, but his legacy goes much further, especially through the lives of many younger men whose ministries he helped to shape. The thanksgiving service in April was attended by family and friends from far and wide.
