Page 939 - Reading Mercury

Devoting himself unsparingly to the welfare of the borough, Mr. Elliston Clifton
had little time for private interests, but he was a keen golfer and a founder member of
Berkshire Golf Club in addition to being a longstanding member of the East Berks
Golf Club. A Freemason he was the senior Past Master of the Downshire Lodge and
Past Provincial Grand Registrar. He was a founder member of the Rotary Club of
Wokingham.
During the time he was Town Clerk, Mr. Elliston Clifton saw many changes in the
borough, and was called upon to carry out many duties outside normal local
government routine. In 1927 the borough was extended from 500 to 3,300 acres and
he worked for two years on legal and Parliamentary matters in this connection.
Earlier, in 1920, he prepared and presented the council’s case at a public inquiry
concerning the sale by the Corporation of the municipal gas works to the Yorktown
and Camberley Gas and Electricity Company: this also had necessitated complicated
and protracted negotiation over a number of years.
Owing to his connection with the Corporation, Mr. Elliston Clifton was appointed
solicitor to Wokingham and District Water Company, and later carried out the
arrangements for the sale of the company to the forerunners of the Mid-Wessex Water
Company.
He was always concerned for the preservation of Wokingham’s pleasant
characteristics as an attractive residential town.
He was clerk to the Assessment Committee and to the Forest Division Justices,
appointments which he held until 1948 and 1953 respectively. He was also for many
years clerk to the Windsor Division of Justices and at the time of his death was clerk
to the Tax Commissioners.
The two world wars brought many extra duties for Mr. Elliston Clifton: food
rationing and national registration in both wars, organising the local military service
tribunal in the 1914-18 war and, during the second, being responsible for organising,
opening and running the British Restaurant. Before retiring as Town Clerk in August,
1946, he organised and carried out the purchase of the sites on which the majority of
council housing estates have since been built.
In 1935 Mr. Elliston Clifton organised the King George V Trust appeal for the
borough and carried out the scheme acquisition of the playing fields of Wescott Road.
In the capacity of a practising solicitor, Mr. Elliston Clifton had the opportunity of
carrying out a number of matters of importance to the town. One of these was the Free
Church Burial Ground Trust, formulated by him, as was the Trust for the Wokingham
Orthopaedic Clinic. After the passing of the National Health Act he was able to
preserve the clinic as an independent local undertaking.

OLD FOLK’S HOSTEL
Gets Delayed Opening
Three years after it was first used as a hostel for the elderly, “Oakfields”—a former
private house in the Barkham Road, Wokingham—was officially opened by the
chairman of the Berkshire County Council, Sir George Mowbray, at a ceremony on
Wednesday.
Sir George said that it might be wondered why the hostel was “opened” some time
after it had been in operation: if one had entered such a place and found a succession
of rooms, perhaps devoid of furniture, and bereft of inhabitants it would be almost “a
soul-destroying performance.” How much more satisfying it was to find a living
community of happy and contented old people.

937