Norman Howard Cliff, 1925-2007

A tribute by his sister, Estelle.

There are hundreds of ageing people all over the world who have a life-long love affair with a beautiful little former Treaty Port formerly called Chefoo, now Yantai. Norman was born there in 1925 of missionary parents and grandparents. There was a school there founded in 1881 for children of missionaries, by Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, who was the uncle of our grandfather.

Our parents, Howard and Mary Cliff, both pharmacists, went with baby Norman into the poverty stricken interior provinces of Henan and Shanxi. Our father was transferred to Hangzhou to be the Principal of the Bible Institute there and we were sent to Chefoo School.

Prison camps

In 1938, Chefoo was occupied by the Japanese and after Pearl Harbour in December 1941 we became enemy aliens. The whole Chefoo school was interned by the Japanese. Norman and I spent a year in small Chefoo camps and then two years in a large camp at Weihsien. Norman spent his time learning Chinese, NT Greek and Hebrew, as he had a natural flair for languages. He taught in the camp and one of his colleagues was Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame. He died of a brain tumour a few months before the war ended. Norman helped to carry his coffin to our little graveyard followed, like the Pied Piper, by a hundred children. He wrote: ‘It was during the trying years of internment that I first felt the call to missionary and ministry work. On my 19th birthday, walking thoughtfully within the electrified wires surrounding the camp, I made a promise to God that if he would release me from this harsh environment I would give my life to him in full-time service.’

South Africa

Finally, after release by American paratroopers, we were taken to Hong Kong and travelled to our parents whom we had not seen for six years. They had been bombed out of their mission station in China, flown to India, and sailed to Durban in South Africa to wait for our release. Norman went to Rhodes University. He worked at City hall for a while and then went to Johannesburg, studied theology and was ordained. He pastored five churches in South Africa and then two in Southern Rhodesia, in the middle of the civil war. Everywhere he ministered he also worked among the Chinese communities.

His health suffered, and he moved to Britain. He used both his professions, working in Christian ministry and accountancy for the United Reformed Church. He became a prolific writer, researching deeply the history of mission in China, especially that of his family for four generations. He has written seven books and two theses. He gained two degrees and was capped by Lady Thatcher at Buckingham University.

Visiting China

After the death of Mao in 1976 China opened up again and in 1984 a Chefoo party visited the land of our birth. In Nanjing we visited the seminary and met dear Chinese Christian friends who had been our father’s co-workers. Norman visited China again 12 times, and contacted five of the students from the Hangzhou Bible Institute. He visited our childhood haunts and marvelled at China’s vibrant, growing church in every corner of that great land.

He leaves two sons and six grandchildren, and his dear wife Joyce, without whose loving care and support he would never have succeeded in all he accomplished.

Norman Howard Cliff, 1925-2007

Obituary

A tribute by his sister, Estelle.

Prison camps

South Africa

Visiting China

OMF

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