Fr. Donald Clements RIP

On 22nd November 2024, Fr. Don Clements died – may he rest in peace. Fr. Donald was born on 30th September 1937 in Goole, Yorkshire. He trained as a British Railways steam locomotive cleaner-fireman, before answering the call from the Lord to be a priest. He studied at the Seminaire St Sulpice in Paris and was ordained to the priesthood on 29th June 1968, initlaly for the Diocese of Menevia by Bishop Langton Fox. He held a number of posts, including parishes in North Wales and training for a teaching post for maladjusted senior boys at a residential school in Lincolnshire, before he was incardinated into the Diocese of Portsmouth in March 1976. Donald first served as assistant priest in Basingstoke until 1979 and then in Wokingham until 1981. From 1981 to 1984 he became Parish Priest of Crowthorne before moving to Twyford where he was Parish Priest until 1994. He then moved to Lymington until his retirement in September 2003. He spent eight years in Jersey with the Little sisters of the Poor, before retiring to Mount St Joseph’s Home in Headingley, Leeds, under the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor where he stayed until in 2022 he was moved to a care home nearer his family. His other roles included chaplain to Wellington College, Crowthorne. He was also chaplain at Broadmoor specialist psychiatric hospital. Donald passed away on Friday 22nd November 2024, at the age of 87.

Let us thank God for his loving service to the people whom he was called to serve. May the Lord grant him eternal rest in the love that he so generously served through his ministry.

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