Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

• HOME
• |
• SERIES
• |
• SUBJECTS
• |
• FEATURES
• |
• ARTICLES
• |
• INTERVIEWS
• |
• ABOUT

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Barclay, charity founder, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe he was there to meet a producer about a different programme.

Having served with the King's Royal Rifle Corps during the First World War, John spent time in Millbank Hospital in London, suffering from the effects of gas poisoning and shattered nerves. After his recovery, he became involved in the Co-operative movement and later, with Dick Sheppard, helped establish the pacifist organisation the Peace Pledge Union.

In 1946, he assisted Margaret McEwen with the Dutch Relief Scheme, which led to the foundation of the International Help for Children charity and the establishment of Little Pond House, a children's convalescent home in Surrey. The charity aimed to find families who could offer free hospitality to children from across Europe, especially refugees and those thrown into poverty by the effects of the Second World War.

"How grateful I was and am for all the trouble you took - how smoothly it all ran."

programme details...

• Edition No: 109
• Subject No: 109
• Broadcast live: Mon 9 Nov 1959
• Broadcast time: 7.30-8.05pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 5
• Edition: 11

on the guest list...

• Geoffrey Gilbey
• Irene - wife
• Margaret McEwen
• Sybil Thorndike
• Nicholas Tsotsos
• Joseph Weingarten
• Janet Joyce
• Giorgio d'Acquanno
• Parthena Felikidou
• George Dvakovsky
• Gerlina Tepez
• Heather Allen
• Anthony - son

production team...

• Researcher: Liam Nolan
• Writer: Liam Nolan
• Director: unknown
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

A Charitable Life

the unsung heroes

Sybil Thorndike

An extract from the 1966 Annual Report of the International Help for Children...

For those most closely connected with International Help for Children, 1966 must inevitably be a year of great sadness. The shadow cast by John Barclay's death has affected so many and his great humanitarian work in helping people with personal problems, apart from the work for children, cannot be replaced.

In the short time since August 22nd, the day he died, however, there has been a most re-assuring expression of confidence and pledge of support from local Committees, subscribers, foster parents and friends from all parts of the country. This feeling of renewal and consolidation has not only ensured the continuance of our work, but the shock has brought everyone closer together and has led to more understanding than ever before.

There is far too little space to quote all the tributes received from the different parts of Europe as well as this country, and only a few extracts are included below:—

"His compassion for the individual child impressed me above all his other qualities. We all, perhaps, pay lip service to this great human need but John was unique in translating this compassion into action. He inspired others to work and to give so that children could know they had worth." (Lady Allen of Hurtwood).

"He was one of the finest and best men I have ever met and I am deeply grateful for having had the opportunity of knowing him and working with him. His real memorial is all those children he saved from the indifference and cruelty of nations." (Mrs. H. Bashford, formerly Wellingborough local Committee).

"He was in his own way I think quite unique. He seemed to be able to do what our politicians steadfastly refuse to do. Love everyone and particularly children. A marvellous and simple concept for international good will. I am sure the good work of the International Help for Children will continue." (Dr. A. W. Frankland).

"MY DEAR FRIEND JOHN" By Father Mario Borrelli

".... I went to London to pay my last respects to my friend John Barclay, a twofold duty of devotion and friend-ship.* He had bestowed a great deal of affection on our boys during the last seven years. He had also arranged summer holidays for them in his country. Now he is no longer with us. I attended the funeral service in the chapel of the crematorium where a mutual friend gave a very moving and beautiful sermon. John's life is summed up in two words; an idealist and a fighter.

I should like to add something else.

The first time I met him was at Victoria Station in London when I took the first group of boys over. I always remember how much he endeared himself to the boys at that first meeting. He took some pennies from his pocket, swallowed them and then to the great astonishment of the boys took them one by one from their pockets. It was a common trick of his that he liked to play again and again.

This revealed a little unknown aspect of his character. John had a great desire to resolve all problems quickly and to remove the wickedness from the world as if it were a juggling trick.

He wanted to give joy to others and bent over backwards in an attempt to do so but always in an almost offhand way, for fear that people might realize just how much he was instrumental in bringing this joy.

I often saw John resolve the most difficult problems with apparent ease, not to impress but to give joy to others... He left us with the memory of his presence, of his work, of his message of brotherhood, in such a way as to make us believe that we would see him again tomorrow. His eyes twinkling as he swallowed pennies and nonchalantly took them from trouser pockets."

*Father Borrelli flew over specially from Naples to John Barclay's funeral on August 25th.

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE from Margaret McEwen

How is it possible to sum up a partnership of nearly twenty years! Especially when in that time a small Society was created and blossomed into something undreamed of - helping all kinds of children from Britain and overseas, with the enthusiastic co-operation of literally thousands of private families and voluntary committees. This was International Help for Children which gave John Barclay the opportunity he had longed for and which could absorb to the utmost limit his almost obsessive desire to serve and be of use. It also provided an essential outlet for his energy which never flagged and indeed seemed to be recharged as each task was eagerly seized upon.

No doubt J.B.'s youth and manhood prepared him for the work which was to become his life. He was a delicate child and as a teenager had to stay on a farm to be built up with country air and good food. When the 1914-18 war broke out, however, he volunteered for the army, although under age, and later at nineteen was commissioned - finding himself in charge of men many years his senior. The terrible battles of Passchendaele and the March retreat of 1918 involved him in situations and conditions which altered his whole outlook. When at last he was invalided home, with mustard gas poisoning and shattered nerves, it was to face a future with an estimated five years to live. J.B.'s will-power, energy and personal courage proved the doctors to be wrong and he could never tell the story too often to describe his own battle to regain his health - with the difficulty of finding suitable employment as well as the poverty and the discouragements of a post-war world.

His engagement and marriage in 1924 to Irene Martin was a great turning point in his life; and with this new found security he began to involve himself in the Co-Operative movement. Some twelve years later he joined Dick Sheppard and with him helped to establish the Peace Pledge Union. On the death of this beloved friend J.B. went through a difficult time and this continued until 1946 when he was able to join me in the Dutch Relief Scheme, which laid the foundations for the International Help for Children.

J.B. died on August 22nd, 1966. It is still impossible to believe that he will no longer be seen, hurrying to the office, Seizing the post and opening it, as he mounted the stairs two at a time - calling out the more interesting bits. Often he sat at his desk for an hour or two before taking off his coat, he so grudged the time to hang it up. He loved the telephone because it made demands on him and led to new ideas or plans. Life was a real adventure to J.B. He had taught himself to look forward with joy and every minute was precious in preparing for the "New World" he felt sure was to come. How often he reminded his audiences that amongst the parties of children welcomed to Britain each year there might be a future "President of the United States of the World".

While I shared this great enthusiasm to the full, my own pace, opinions and convictions were often of quite a different pattern. Far from damaging the partnership these opposing viewpoints enhanced it and meant we could combine to make our small Society appeal to a very wide circle.

Two friends of ours, who established one of our first local committees, on hearing of J.B.'s death, wrote "we are all indeed diminished". This expresses the feeling of those of us who are left. But we are not discouraged and our sadness will be gradually turned into a new vitality for the work J.B. loved so much. Wherever he is now I feel he has at last found the New World of his vision.

INTERNATIONAL HELP FOR CHILDREN THE MONTHLY NEWS-SHEET

October, 1966. JOHN BARCLAY

On September 17th, a Memorial Service was held for John Barclay at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. It was a simple and moving ceremony attended by six hundred people from all over the country. Also present were three members of the I.H.C. family, two from Greece, and one from Germany, who are now grown up and married. Dame Sybil Thorndike read the lesson inspiring all those present and Sir Victor Gollancz gave a warm appreciation of John's life. The Lord Mayor was represented by Brigadier Clapham.

So many people have paid tributes to John in letters and articles, and I would like to quote from two of them; the first from the Parnham Herald and the second by Father Borrelli in his newspaper "Lo Scugnizzo".

"Although an excellent organizer John Barclay disliked over organization and his success was due to the friendly relations and mutual trust which he created and invited wherever he went. As an officer on active service in the trenches during the First World War, he formed a deep and lasting re¬jection of war, and his views, as with so many things, were passionately held. Here was a man without any of the masks of convention who was able to say absolutely anything and get away with it. His was the vitality outstripping that of the others running beside him. His preoccupation with the very next task was intense. Here was the fighter who hated wars tough in debate - gentle in compassion."

"The first time I met him was at Victoria Station in London when I took the first group of boys over, I always remember how much he endeared himself at that first meeting. He took some pennies from his pocket, swallowed them, and then to the astonishment of the boys took them one by one from their pockets. It was a common trick of his which he liked to play again and again. He wanted to give joy to others and bent over backwards in an attempt to do so, but always in an almost offhand way, for fear that people might realise just how much he was instrumental in bringing it. I often saw John resolve that most difficult problems with apparent ease, not to impress, but to give joy to others. He left us with the memory of his presence, of his work, and of his message of brotherhood, in such a way as to make us believe that we might see him again tomorrow."