Clifford Leslie STANTON
1917 - 1974 (57 years)
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Name Clifford Leslie STANTON [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] Born 12 Mar 1917 Bristol Maternity Hospital, Bristol, England 
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8] Gender Male Address 135 Topsham Road, Exeter, Devon, England [4] Address 23 Norton Road, Knowle, Somerset, England [4] Address Aft 12 Mar 1917 3 Richmond Terrace, Queens Road, Bristol, Avon, England [10] Address Abt 1923 34 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol, Avon, England [10] Address Abt 1928 82 Whitehall Road, Whitehall, Bristol, Avon, England [10, 11] Education 1931 Temple Technical School, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England [8] Education Between 1935 and 1939 Merchant Venturers Technical College, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England [8] Carpentry and Joinery Occupation Between 9 Oct 1944 and 5 Mar 1945 Aversa Camp, Aversa, Caserta, Campania, Italy [8] Friends Ambulance Unit Address Jan 1951 45 Anthony Road, Heavitree, Exeter, Devon, England [1, 4] Address 1958 Broadway House, Topsham, Devon, England [12] Occupation 1958 Exeter, Devon, England [12] Teacher Address May 1962 7 Regent's Park, Polsloe Road, Exeter, Devon, England [4] Address Abt 1974 "Redhill", Redhill, Morchard Bishop, Devon, England [4, 6] Occupation Between 7 Mar and 26 Apr 1945 Refugee Transit Camp, Ortona, Italy [8] UNRRA Transit Camp Occupation Between 30 Apr and 2 Jun 1945 98th British General Hospital, Bari, Puglia, Italy [8] Ward 95 CMF Died 1 Dec 1974 Morchard Bishop, Devon, England [3, 4, 13] Buried 5 Dec 1974 St Mary's Church, Morchard Bishop, Devon, England [6] Person ID I105 My Genealogy Last Modified 27 Aug 2018
Father Frederick John STANTON, b. 16 Feb 1882, St Mary's Parish, Southampton, Hampshire, England , d. 5 Aug 1940, 82 Whitehall Road, Whitehall, Bristol, Avon, England (Age 58 years) Relationship natural Mother Annie May HEATH, b. 26 May 1892, 34 Brindley Street, St Mary Paddington, London, England , d. 28 Nov 1986, Saffron House, Prospect Place, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England (Age 94 years) Relationship natural Married 4 Aug 1913 St Paul's Church, Bedminster, Bristol, England [3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 15] Photos 
Annie Heath and George Thorne Wedding Family ID F3 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Ruth Sabina Mary SAMSON, b. 16 Nov 1918, 45 Cann Hall Road, Leytonstone, London, England , d. 16 Dec 2008 (Age 90 years) Married 22 Aug 1958 St Thomas' Telford Park, Streatham, London, England [3, 4, 12] 
All.jpg 
Clifford and Ruth.jpg 
Clifford Ruth and Ronald Stanton.jpg 
Kiss.jpg 
Mervyn and Clifford Stanton.jpg 
Parents.jpg 
Wedding Album Front Page.jpg 
Wedding Guests.jpg Last Modified 27 Aug 2018 Family ID F64 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Event Map 
Occupation - Teacher - 1958 - Exeter, Devon, England 
Address - Abt 1974 - "Redhill", Redhill, Morchard Bishop, Devon, England = Link to Google Earth
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Headstones 
Clifford Stanton Gravestone
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Notes - 06/15
Between October 1944 and March 1945, Cliff was posted to Aversa Italy (North of Naples) to work at a refugee camp where the Friends Ambulance Unit had a station. The following excerpt from A. Tegla Davies' "THE STORY OF THE F.A.U. IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1946" (1947) describes the work Cliff was involved in - the final lines echoing the impression I have gained of his compassion and humanist nature.
"As already suggested, Displaced Persons were never such a problem in Italy as they became in Central Europe. But in addition to the Jugoslavs and Poles there were several thousands of Jews and people of many nationalities, of mixed nationality or of no nationality at all, who had been released from internment or had been caught by the war in Italy. At Aversa and Cine Citta, the Italian Hollywood south of Rome, the Unit assisted in camps set up for them.
The Unit had already worked at Aversa when it housed Italian refugees. When Leo Davies arrived there from Sicily in October 1944, it had been taken over to accommodate some 700 non-Italians. At Cine Citta, the pretentious but battered studio buildings had room for two camps, Italian and non-Italian; the population of the latter during the six months over the winter of 1944-45, when the Unit worked in it, fluctuated between 300 and 1,400. In Aversa and Cine Citta the Unit's efforts were largely concerned with welfare-workshops and other occupations, education for the children---for everywhere there were children---and above all the kind of case-work which consists of sitting down to listen sympathetically to tales of hardship and distress. At Cine Citta the routine job was the supply and testing of 40,000 to 70,000 gallons of drinkable water daily, but...
"by far the most important part of the work has been that which is so hard to write about in reports, that of talking with individuals and helping to solve their problems and showing them that there is still someone who is willing to listen to them and give them time and assistance if possible. In most cases now the real necessities of life are forthcoming, but it is in little things---little to us---that mental sufferings often occur. When there is physical danger, or when people are on the move, then there is not the same sort of worry. It is when they feel a little safe, physically, and have time to brood that their worst time comes, and it is in camps such as this that it is seen to the maximum. It is sometimes by our friendliness and sympathy in these cases that our best work is done . . . . A refugee is a 'class'---the lowest social stratum."
Whether among Italians or non-Italians, the Unit had no lack of opportunity in the camps to show friendliness and sympathy."
http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/Friends/fau10.html
Then, between March and April 1945 Cliff worked with the UNRRA Relief Team at the Refugee Transit camp at Ortana on the North coast. Again from A. Tegla Davies' takes up the story:
"A survey of the position in Chieti and adjoining provinces had been undertaken early in 1945, and during the spring a transit camp set up outside Ortona. Here the Unit was engaged until the end of the year on the management of the camp and the distribution of the refugees to their homes. Refugees, returning prisoners and forced labourers, stayed a day or two before being moved on.
"From this last station of a journey that began in many cases north of the Alps, they returned to the devastated villages and minefields of the Sangro Valley, which the town dominates. Ortona, still littered with the broken hulls of tanks, was the railhead and lay down the road . . . . The condition of the returning refugees at the end of their long trek through the, transit centres was often surprisingly good. Arriving as they did with loads of luggage which might include pigs, tortoises, dogs, hens and grain, they showed annoyance when they found that they could not proceed immediately to their homes. However, the situation was fully explained to them on arrival, when the head of each family was interviewed. An opportunity was given to everyone to go first to the place he wanted to go back to. No one seemed to be deterred by what he found.; whole families would set up house in one room and even one standing wall could still be regarded as home by those who had been exiled for years."
http://www.ourstory.info/library/4-ww2/Friends/fau10.html
Between 30th April 1945 and 2nd June 1945, Cliff was stationed at the 98th British General Hospital which at the time was at Bari, near the heel of Italy, occupying the Bari Polyclinic, formerly Mussolini's's health-care showpiece. (http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/112.html and http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-TRIVIA-ENG/2001-07/0994505117).
In 1958 Clifford and Ruth were married by Cliff's brother Rev. Ronald Stanton at the church of St Thomas' Telford Park in Streatham South London. Best man was Cliff's brother Mervyn. Maid of honour was Ruth's sister Patricia M Poole.
Cliff founded the Exeter branch of the Woodcraft Folk in 1951. He was known as "Wanderfoot" or "Wandi" by the "Folk". While in hospital in late 1974 some weeks before his death. He received a huge number of cards from wellwishers around the Woodcraft Folk community including many homemade cards from numerous children in the organisation. The kids clearly loved him judging by the comments in the cards "Get well soon - Woodcraft Folk need you back"; and "We want to play".
- 06/15
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Sources - [S55] Papers - STANTON, Clifford Leslie, STANTON, Clifford Leslie; National ID Card.
- [S54] Papers - SAMSON, Ruth Sabina, Tennyson Birthday Calender; Little black book of birthday's belonging to Maude Sabina BALLS;.
- [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, Significant dates.
- [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, General Information.
Includes:
ALLEN
HEATH
THORNE
FLETCHER
Early Trees
Old Address Book (undated) (unscanned) - [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, "My Father"; STANTON, Frederick John; b1882.
Documented by Ronald STANTON.
Includes:
- "My Father"
- MOD Military Service Record
- Background Comment (by Mervyn and Michelle STANTON re Military Service Records) - scan not included as is initial draft of "STANTON, Frederick John; "FJS Comments" (Mervyn Stanton)" in Third Party Tree Documents and Histories source file.
- Rough Notes ("My Father") - [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, STANTON, Clifford Leslie; Eulogy.
See attached document - [S40] Military Records, STANTON, Frederick John; b1882; Military Service; Royal Artillery attestations 1883-1942.
First name(s) Frederick John
Last name Stanton
Age 19
Birth year 1882
Birth place Southampton
Service number 1400706
Former service number 7504
Attestation year 1901
Record set Royal Artillery attestations 1883-1942
Category Military, armed forces & conflict
Record collection Regimental & service records
Collections from Great Britain - [S55] Papers - STANTON, Clifford Leslie, Miscellaneous.
Digitised:
- Passport
- Friends Ambulance Unit Members Record Book
- Travel Orders 1944
- FAU CMF
Non-digitised:
- Prayer Book - Note in front read "Clifford Leslie Stanton. Confirmation 20/3/31" - Royal - Life Saving Certificate - "Clifford Stanton - Temple Technical School December 1931"
- National Certificate in Building - October 1939 - Merchant Venturers Technical College. 2 year part time course. Higher Grade awarded
- Certificate of British Institute of Certified Carpenters "Clifford L Stanton was elected a Associate; 7th October 1950"
- Certificate of British Institute of Certified Carpenters "Clifford L Stanton was elected a Fellow; 30th April 1960"
Manually reviewed before destruction.
- [S103] Diaries - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey; b1914; Diary 1952.
1952 diary contains records:
26 Jan - "Philippa Ruth born"
4 Sep - "To Shirley to see Stan and Marjorie Love"
11 Oct - "Visited Walsall" "Bob and Flo took us in car re Parish of Bentley. - Black Country no good for children?"
28 Dec - "Cliff came - non-communicant"
29 Dec - "Cliff went off to London" - [S51] Third Party Tree Documents and Histories, STANTON, Mervyn; "3 Richmond Terrace";.
Memories of 3 Richmond Terrace in attached document - [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, "Addresses during lifetime".
- [S12] Marriage Certificate, STANTON, Clifford; & SAMSON, Ruth; 1958.
- [S55] Papers - STANTON, Clifford Leslie, STANTON, Clifford; Obituary; "Exeter Woodcraft Bulletin - 1974".
- [S60] BMD Index, STANTON Frederick J & HEATH, Annie May; Marriage; 1913; FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1915 [database on-line].
Name: Frederick J Stanton
Spouse Surname: Heath
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1913
Registration district: Bristol
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume Number: 6a
Page Number: 49 - [S34] Papers - STANTON, Ronald Geoffrey, Ronald Stanton, HEATH, Annie May; Eulogy.
See attached document
- [S55] Papers - STANTON, Clifford Leslie, STANTON, Clifford Leslie; National ID Card.
